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THE LIFE 



OF 



REV. JOEL HAWES, D.D, 



TENTH PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH, HARTFORD, CONN. 



BY 



EDWARD A. LAWRENCE, D.D. 



By THEODORE D. WOOLSEF, D.D., LL.D. 



HARTFORD: 

PUBLISHED BY HAMERSLEY & CO. 
1871. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, 

By HAMERSLEY & CO., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 






TO THE 

FIRST CHURCH AND SOCIETY IK HARTFORD, 

£fjts tfftcmortai of tJjeir pastor, 

WHO, AFTER MORE THAN FORTY TEARS OF LABOR WITH THEM, SAID, " I CAN NEVER 

BE SUFFICIENTLY THANKFUL TO MY GOD FOR CASTING MY LOT 

AMONG YOU AS YOUR MINISTER," 

IS MOST CORDIALLY DEDICATED 

IN CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP AND AFFECTION. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



WHEN Dr. Hawes became an old man, some of those 
who were his most attached friends and contem- 
poraries had been called away from life, while others were 
overtaken with physical infirmities. Having been brought 
into contact with him by his election as a member of the 
corporation of Yale College, and afterwards into relations 
of friendship, several years "before his death he made the 
request that I would preach his funeral-sermon. I promised 
to do this if I outlived him ; and, when the summons came, 
I was the more ready to perform the task, knowing that he 
continued to the last to entertain the same desire. 

But a service of this kind was by no means a sufficient 
commemoration of the labors of one who had done great 
good, as a preacher and a writer, to the souls of multitudes. 
Possibly (although it is only a conjecture on my part) he 
may have thought of some kind of commemoration when 
in his last illness he wished his papers to be put into the 
hands of Dr. E. A. Lawrence and myself. Out of this wish 
the present memoir naturally grew. Dr. Lawrence asked 
me to do the office for our common friend's memory; but I 

5 



6 INTRODUCTORY. 

at once declined, as well on account of the pressure of my 
official and other labors, as because I knew that I could 
not do it in an acceptable manner. The office thus fell 
into better hands ; and a work at length appears, which 
will, I trust, do justice to the memory of Dr. Hawes, and 
good to the great cause to which he gave heart and life. 

I may be permitted to say, that having been made 
acquainted through the goodness of Dr. Lawrence, before 
publication, with the plan and with many parts in detail 
of his work, I can bear witness to his fidelity and success. 
It seems to me that a strain, not of indiscriminate eulogy, 
but of just estimate, runs through the memoir; that he 
shows the intention of dealing kindly and impartially with 
all shades of theological opinions with which Dr. Hawes 
was brought into contact ; that he covers up nothing 
which ought to be known, and makes known nothing 
which is not properly a part of Dr. Hawes's life ; in short, 
that, as a faithful "friend, he pays a fitting as well as an 
honest tribute to a plain but noble man. 
v Dr. Hawes was frequently at New Haven. For many 
years he came often to preach by way of exchange for one 
or another of his ministerial brethren, or to see Dr. Taylor 
or Dr. Fitch, to both of whom he was much attached. 
For a long time, he preached once or twice a year in the 
college chapel ; and, for forty years, I was one of his hear- 
ers in that place. Few persons entered the pulpit there 
who commanded attention better, or did more good, than 
he, so long as he was in the freshness and the vigor of life. 
His obvious sincerity and self-forgetfulness, his kindliness, 
even his plain, blunt manner, as setting forth his sincerity, 
were sources of power. Afterwards, as he advanced in 



INTRODUCTORY. 7 

years, his paternal spirit, if I may so call it, awoke a sym- 
pathy between him and his younger hearers. I should, 
however, suppress the truth, if I did not add that he was 
less acceptable toward the close of his life ; and that the 
same style of preaching, supported by the same qualities 
of the man, produced less effect. The causes for this, prob- 
ably, were the changes that had taken place in the style of 
preaching, and the new aspects of religious truth ; the new 
questions of the age, in short, with which he was less famil- 
iar than younger men. In his later years there was more 
the impression of monotony in his manner and matter, 
and his ungainliness was more remarked. But, with all 
this, as a Christian preacher, who sought to " turn many 
to righteousness," as a strong man who went right at the 
point, as an instrument used and signally blessed by God, 
he deserves to be classed among the most eminent minis- 
ters of our day in New England. 

Dr. Hawes was chosen into the corporation of Yale 
College in 1846, and continued to be a member of that 
body until his death. In 1861 he was elected into the 
Prudential Committee, — an important Board, to which that 
corporation intrust many of the financial and other inter- 
ests of the college either finally or in the first instance, — 
and was re-elected into the committee annually until his 
death. I was there brought into close relations to him. 
In the Board he was a safe man, as having something of 
caution and of timidity in his nature, but. did not so easily 
comprehend business-relations as some others. 

Out of the -Board I saw much of him during those years. 
They were years of trial. First, his surviving child, a 
promising young minister, had just been torn from him by 



8 INTRODUCTORY. 

■ 
a sudden death ; and then came those years of misunder- 
standing that followed his resignation. He did not speak 
much of these things, but without doubt felt them keenly ; 
for he had strong and quick sensibilities. Yet it was 
pleasant to see how the tender and Christian man unbent 
himself in the family ; how a joyous spirit came over him 
as he talked with children ; how a little kindness seemed to 
diffuse happiness through his soul. He was a man formed 
for friendship, and had multitudes of friends among the 
lowly and the young, as well as in other conditions of 
life. 

Dr. Hawes had his faults of native character ; but few 
men have served their generation according to the will of 
God, and served God in their generation, as faithfully as he. 

THEODORE D. WOOLSEY. 



PRELIMINARY. 



AMONG the papers placed in my hands from which 
to prepare this memorial were a few sheets on which 
the subject of it had noted some of the incidents and more 
important events of his boyhood and early youth. There 
were also found a few pages upon which Mrs. Hawes had 
sketched an outline of the first chapter of a biography. 
It seems, therefore, that both of them had contemplated 
the work, which, being declined by one far better qualified 
to perform it than myself, at last fell into my hands. 

In the labor thus providentially assigned me, I have 
found, from beginning to end, a steadily-increasing pleasure. 
The character is one that invites study, and repays it. 
There is nothing in it that does not bear inspection ; noth- 
ing requiring to be passed over in silence, or shaded by 
darkening the lights ; though the reader, as he proceeds, 
will need to carry along with him the mantle of charity. 

Of material in the form of sermons and addresses there 
was an abundance ; but of letters, which are far more 
representative of the peculiar social and interior life, 
except to his own family, there were very few. 

9 



10 PRELIMINARY. 

Difficult and delicate questions came up as I advanced. 
These I have endeavored to meet in such a manner, that, 
while rendering justice and due honor to the departed, I 
might not do the least injustice to the surviving. Dr. 
Hawes was so interlinked with other representative men, 
either in his plans or theirs, that in certain parts of the 
"Life," when he appears, they make their appearance also, 
as in a drama or tableau. Such a scene occurs in the eighth 
chapter. Each in his strongly-marked idiosyncrasies comes 
forth in a distinct and vivid picture. Together, they form 
a unique and remarkable group of the great and good 
men of the time, — all uniting to emphasize their esteem 
for him whom they make the central figure, and to illus- 
trate his character. 

It is not always easy to determine in what proportion 
the evil and the good that mingle in one's life should be 
reproduced in his biography. Simply the good alone, or 
only the evil, is a false half-truth that is much worse than 
the blank of silence. A life in which vice and crime 
strongly prevail, should rarely, if ever, be repeated in 
print. One, as in the present instance, in which the Chris- 
tian virtues are se'en struggling onward from weakness to 
strength, through defeats to victories, demands in the 
biography the corresponding antagonisms of evil, not for 
truth's sake alone, but to show the reality of the conflict 
and the value of the final victory. 

I have wished that our departed friend might re-appear 
in this volume as he was in the life he lived among us, — 
not in decorations, not crowned and with palms in his 
hand, all-glorious as in the resurrection, but Joel Hawes as 
he was here in his working-days ; always running the race, 



PRELIMINARY. 11 

though sometimes stumbling; fighting bravely the good 
fight, yet now and then meeting with defeat, or beating the 
air ; often in the furnace, yet always coming from it purer 
" until the day in which he was taken up." 

E. A. L. 

Marblehead. Mass. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Introductory 5 

Preliminary 9 

CHAPTER I. 

Genealogy. — Youth. — Conversion. — Decides on the Ministry. — Col- 
lege-Life T 15 

CHAPTER II. 

Seminary Course. — Assistant in Phillips Academy. — Licensure. — 

Preaches as a Candidate. — Call and Settlement at Hartford . . 37 

CHAPTER III. 

Letters to Miss Fisher, and Marriage . . . . . . .65 

CHAPTER IV. 

Criticisms upon Himself, upon his Alma Mater, and upon Ministers . 85 

CHAPTER V. 

Early Pastoral Labors. — Rules for Study. — First Child . . . 100 

CHAPTER VI. 

Religious Interest. — Revival. — Series of Revivals. — Eirst Affliction. — 

Lectures to Young Men . . . . . . . . . 106 

CHAPTER VII. 
Travels in Great Britain and France. — Welcome Home . . . 121 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Preaches at Protracted Meetings. — Calls to New York, Boston, Philadel- 
phia, Buffalo, Providence 134 

13 



14 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. page. 

Marriage of his Daughter. — Accompanies her to her Missionary Home. 

— Visits with Dr. Anderson the Stations in the Levant. — Return. 

— Death of Mrs. Van Lennep 1G4 

CHAPTER X. 
Ministerial Fellowship with Dr. Bushnell suspended. — Correspondence. 

— Fellowship restored 198 

CHAPTER XI. 

Lectures. — Recollections of Hartford. — Two Theological Schools in 

Connecticut. — Efforts at Union 217 

CHAPTER XII. 

Mrs. Hawes's Jottings respecting their Children. — Dr. Hawcs's Letters 
to his Son. — The Son's Settlement in the Ministry, and Sudden 
Death 227 

CHAPTER XHI. 

Proposals respecting a Colleague. — Settlement of an Assistant Pastor. 

— His Resignation, and the Resignation of Dr. Hawes . . . 262 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Memoranda of Last Labors. — Last Sermons. — Death. — Mrs. Hawes : 

her Death * 209 

CHAPTER XV. 
Extracts from Funeral Discourses 280 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Dr. Hawes as a Theologian 306 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Dr. Hawes as a Preacher and Philanthropist . ... 322 

CHAPTER XVTH. 
Dr. Hawes as a Pastor. — Interest in Young People. — Fondness for 

Children ' 349 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Dr. Hawes. as a Man. — Natural Endowments. — Simple Habits. — 

Economy and Benevolence. — Geniality and Goodness. — Summary, 365 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 



CHAPTEE I. 

Genealogy. — Youth. — Conversion. — Decides on the Ministry. — Col- 
lege-Life. 

HUMAN life is like a stream, that comes up out 
of one ocean of mystery, and, flowing on 
across the continent of time, passes into another, 
but for the light of revelation, of equal mystery. 
Men are born: they live and they die. Whence 
come they? What are they? Whither clo they 
go ? These, with the reflecting, are the great prob- 
lems of thought. We trace a single individual or 
a family through a few generations, towards the 
creative origin, when the line is lost in the dimness 
of antiquity and the interminglings of other lives. 

Very little that is certain can be ascertained re- 
specting the lineage of Dr. Hawes, except that his 
ancestors were among the early settlers of New 
England, and came from Lincolnshire, Old England. 
They took up their residence in what was then the 
large town of Dedham, Mass. 

15 



16 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

The great-grandfather resided in that part of the 
town, which, in 1673, was incorporated as Wren- 
tham. Still later, this branch removed to Medway. 
Here was born Joel Hawes, on Forefathers' Day, — 
the 22 d of December, 1789. There were fonr sons 
by a first wife, — Lewis, Joel, Preston, and Lyman, — 
and one by a second. There were also three daugh- 
ters, — Fanny, Orincla, and Almira. Fanny, the 
youngest, lived in Brookfielcl, whither the family 
had removed from Medway. The other two were 
married, and went to the West. 

Physically, these sons were among the sturdiest 
of New England : they were not made for dainti- 
ness, but were full of brawn, and for use. Yery 
little is known of the early childhood of Joel. The 
hoe, the hammer, and the anvil were his first edu- 
cators ; and to these he and his brothers were not a 
little indebted for their stalwart and rugged consti- 
tution : for his father was a blacksmith, and also 
the owner of a farm. 

Both his parents were from the common people, 
with only an ordinary education ; but they were in- 
dustrious, and had a strong constitution, — the father 
living to the age of eighty-three, and the mother to 
that of seventy-seven. They had a large share of 
common sense, or what is called mother-wit: but 
they were neither of them professing Christians; 
and they gave their children no religious instruction, 
and very little of any kind that was of much value. 

"The first years of my life," says Joel, "were 
thrown away. I was a wild, hardy, reckless youth, 
delighting in hunting, fishing, trapping, and in 



^LIFE OF DR. II A WES. 17 

rough, athletic sports, — all tending to invigorate my 
constitution, but adding nothing to my mental or 
moral improvement. Early instruction I had none ; 
or it was of the wrong kind, and only tended to 
confirm me in sin. Probably one year would in- 
clude all the time that I ever spent in school; though, 
as I remember, I was very happy there, and found 
it easy to master the lessons assigned me, which 
were confined to reading, writing, spelling, and 
arithmetic." 

At the age of fourteen, the homestead in Med- 
way was disposed of, and a large farm purchased 
in Brookfleld. Here Joel had still fewer advan- 
tages for either moral or mental improvement ; for 
they lived three and a half miles from church, and 
about two miles from any school. The farming life 
was not at ail to his taste ; it was too confined, and 
lacked opportunities for enterprise : and, as he was 
not needed at home, — two sons remaining with the 
parents, — he determined to seek employment else- 
where. Two of his maternal uncles residing in the 
northern part of Vermont, he decided to make them 
a visit. 

As there were no railroads in those days, and no 
stages in the upper part of New England, taking a 
few articles of clothing, he started on foot. About 
midway his journey, foot-sore, weary, and well-nigh 
penniless, he was accosted by a man who wished to 
obtain help in his oil-mill ; and he engaged to remain 
with him for a while. It so happened that this 
man was a regular church-goer, and in the habit of 
daily family worship. This was all new to our young 



18 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

fortune-seeker. On being questioned as to the rea- 
sons for his absenting himself from c'hurch, he could 
find none to offer that were worth any thing. 

The faithfulness of his employer, though not at- 
tended with any radical change on the part of Joel, 
was remembered by him through life, as in some 
respects like the Bethel-call of the angel to Jacob, 
making the place, for the time, a " house of God " 
to him. 

When he arrived at his uncle's, not finding any 
desirable occupation with them, he obtained employ- 
ment in a cloth-dressing establishment, where he 
labored until he had secured funds sufficient for 
returning home to Brookfield. This absence of a 
little more than a year was his first experience in 
journeying : it not only checked his natural taste 
for adventure, but gave him some useful hints as to 
the virtue and value of contentment. 

In the autumn of 1806 he entered a cloth-dress- 
ing establishment, carried on by the man who had 
purchased the old homestead in Meclway. He was 
now back in his birthplace, and where the first 
fourteen years . of his life had been passed. Every 
young man goes through a period of trial : and, to 
Joel, this one of cloth-dressing was the most perilous 
in his whole history ; for it brought him into bad 
company. After the hours of labor were over, the 
shop-doors were closed and locked. With his fel- 
low-apprentice, and a few others who came in for 
the purpose, the time was spent in card-playing and 
dissipation, and sometimes till late into the night. 

During the months of July and August, the sea- 



LIFE OF DR. II AWES. 19 

son of hay-making, the young men were allowed to 
earn what they could for themselves. So earnest 
was Joel to increase the little sums thus gained, that, 
in the cold months of February and March, he 
chopped wood in the evening by moonlight that he 
might gain a little more. In consequence of the 
exposure, he took a severe cold, which made him 
quite deaf; and it was not till the June following 
that his hearing was fully restored. 

Then he attended church for the first time in two 
years. On returning, he remarked to his fellow- 
apprentice that he believed his deafness was a judg- 
ment upon him for his desecration of the Sabbath. 
This thought, awakened in him by that Sunday ser- 
vice, pierced him like the arrow of the Almighty, 
that drinketh up the spirit. His carelessness was 
suddenly broken up ; and he learned that there is no 
peace to the wicked. At night he would lie in bed, 
and weep ; while his fellow-apprentice would lie, and 
laugh at him. 

In his account of this period of suffering, he says, 
" I was ignorant ; I was alone ; I had none to coun- 
sel or guide me ; and I had to grope my way in x 
what seemed a long, dark passage before I emerged. 
When at last the light came, I was on my knees in 
the open field, with the shades of evening around 
me ; and this light was very sweet." 

In the joyfulness of his hope, he called upon the 
aged pastor, Rev. Mr. Sandford. But the result of 
the interview was not what he anticipated : his hope 
was all swept away; and he returned in a state 
of dark despondency. This was the result, proba- 



20 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

bly, of a judicious shaking of the young tree, to see 
if it had roots ; and, if it had, to give them a deeper 
hold in the rich soil of truth. At the close of the 
third clay, just as the sun, at its setting, burst forth 
from the clouds into brightness, a clivins light 
beamed in upon his darkened mind, of which the 
scene was a faint emblem. This opened to him a 
new world. 

Though now eighteen, he had almost never read 
the Bible. On one occasion, a year or two earlier, 
he had been led to a little reflection, and had 
retired to consult his Bible ; but some one came 
in upon him. He shut it up : his seriousness van- 
ished, and he had never opened it for the purpose 
afterwards. Now all was changed. In the shop 
he found an old tattered Bible, with many of the 
leaves torn out. This became his liber primus, 
and he began to peruse it with the greatest avidity : 
he would pin up a loose leaf before him, and, while 
at work, commit the verses to memory, and ponder 
them during the day; then he would pin up an- 
other and another, till in this way he became 
familiar with many Scripture-passages. When cus- 
tomers called, he would endeavor to ascertain 
whether they felt as he did ; and was greatly 
strengthened and comforted whenever he found any 
one who could sympathize with him and help him. 

Those loose and torn leaves, pinned up before 

him while at work, began his preparation for the 

ministry, and laid the foundation for his character 

as a strong, fearless Bible-preacher. 

■'' On the first Sabbath of May, 1808, in his nine- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 21 

teenth year, lie united with the church in his native 
parish, /and received baptism from Dr. Prentiss of 
Medfield, his own minister, Mr. Sandford being laid 
aside from his labors. 

In 1810, while teaching a school in Medway, Joel 
commenced a journal, which was continued till some 
time after his settlement in the ministry. The 
record of that memorable event, the profession of 
his faith, and his connection with the church, was 
the first entry made in it. 

As such records are not designed for the public 
eye, there is always a delicacy, and sometimes an 
indiscretion, in removing from them the veil of pri- 
vacy. When one is thus writing, about himself or 
others, to himself, he throws away all guards, and 
leaves off all ornaments, as one does when opening 
his heart to his Maker in prayer : hence his truest, 
most real life, in its lights and shades, its defeats 
and victories, are often found more freely expressed 
in his diary than anywhere else. 

But not a line or a word discreditable to Mr. 
Hawes, or that could raise a blush on the cheek of 
Innocence herself, sullies a page of these jottings : 
they disclose mistakes, errors of judgment, and 
confessions of sin ; but they are the errors and con- 
fessions of one who is seen to be nobly struggling 
for the mastery. They furnish photographic 
sketches so life-like, that we cannot forbear trans- 
mitting some of them to his friends, to be hung on 
the walls of their memory. 

The summer following the profession of his faith, 



22 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

he worked for the Rev. Mr. Dickinson of Holliston. 
It was while in his family that the plan of a prepa- 
ration for the ministry was proposed to him by 
Miss Betsey Prentiss, a sister of Mrs. Dickinson. 
" When she first spoke to me on the subject," he 
says, " my heart was in my mouth : it had often 
pressed itself on my attention; but I had put it 
away on account of the heart-sickness it caused me. 
My poverty, and want of education, rose up before 
me as insuperable obstacles. I was now far on in 
life, and nearly past the time when a profession 
should have been acquired, at least in part ; but 
she made me think it possible, encouraging me by 
the hope that she would aid me, which she after- 
wards did by loaning me small sums of money. 

" A single remark which she made, in answer to 
my discouragements, had more influence in decid- 
ing me on the undertaking than her proffers of pe- 
cuniary aid. It was this : ' Mountains often become 
mole-hills on approaching them.' In the month of 
September I left Mr. Dickinson, to consult my 
father on the subject; but, not finding him disposed 
to give his consent, I returned to Mr. George Bar- 
ber's, and labored for him at cloth-dressing until 
the latter part of the winter. At that time, having 
gained the approval of my parents, I removed to 
Northbriclge, and commenced study under the tui- 
tion of the Rev. Dr. Crane, Feb. 22, 1809. My 
prospects were truly gloomy, having but thirty-two 
dollars in the world, and no sure hope of assistance 
from any quarter." 

But the ship was launched; and he was deter- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 23 

mined to put out into the unknown sea. A diffi- 
culty, however, soon met him, greater even than pov- 
erty. On commencing his Latin grammar, he found 
it impossible to master the first declension. After 
continued efforts for a day and a half, but with very 
little success, mortified at having undertaken what 
he could not accomplish, he threw himself upon the 
bed, and wept like a child. For a few minutes, he 
would have given all he possessed to have been 
back again in the shop. When a little composed, 
he went to Dr. Crane, his teacher, and asked for 
something to do requiring hard labor. Pointing to 
a load of wood in the yard, the doctor told him he 
might cut and pile it up. Working vigorously at it 
for a half-day, he finished it, and then went back 
to his declension, which he mastered, and the 
grammar too, in a fortnight. At his second recita- 
tion, his teacher told him he could make his memory 
what he pleased, — iron, brass, or steel. lie was 
pushed into Virgil, Cicero, and the Greek Testa- 
ment ; and entered Brown University the following 
September, 1809. 

Of his preparation for college he says, " Very 
poorly fitted I feel that I was." But few young 
men would have had the courage to attempt to enter 
with such a scanty outfit in the classics, in money, 
and in wearing apparel. All his wardrobe, except 
the summer suit of plaid gingham, which he had on, 
and which is described " as short at the top, short at 
the bottom, and scant all around," was tied up in a 
bandanna handkerchief, and hung over his shoulder 
on a stick which he had cut in the woods for a cane. 



24 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

Such was the plight in which the young student 
made his appearance at the door of what, to his im- 
agination, was the great and august university. 
Awkward, ill-clad, and poorly fitted, yet rich in 
grace, and full of grit, he believed in labor ; and 
that this, well directed, and enough of it, would 
bring success. He afterwards spoke of his feelings 
while trudging up the hill on which the college- 
buildings stood. It was not his poverty, nor his 
poor wardrobe, nor his greenness, that oppressed 
him ; but, " Am I fitted ? Shall I get in ? or, Shall 
I fail, and be turned back ? " 

The winter following, he taught school in Norton 
for fourteen dollars a month, — just the school' he 
was fitted for, as the scholars did not know much, 
nor the teacher much more. The second winter, 
1810, he taught in Meclway, his native parish, for 
eighteen dollars a month. In addition to what he 
earned in teaching, a few small sums were given 
him by benevolent individuals ; for which he says, 
" I ought to be thankful, as it gives me power to 
discharge my necessary expenses. Thus, when want 
presses, God works a way for supplying me. On 
the whole, I think my poverty is an advantage. 
Although it may subject me to some difficulties, yet 
the blessings which I am sensible accrue to me from 
this state by far counterbalance the evils : it is 
calculated to divest me of pride ; to make me 
feel dependent, as a person borne up by the chin 
when swimming. Surely it is better to be fed im- 
mediately from the hand of God than to draw from 
accumulated piles which I might have a pride in 
calling my own." 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 25 

While teaching in Medway, he writes, Jan. 5, 1811, 
" Dined with Esquire Sandford by invitation, and 
was very liberally received by him and Mrs. Sandford. 
Acquaintance with the polite, and those that are 
polished after the manner of the world, may be of 
advantage to me ; although I abhor that politeness 
and civility which deviate from natural and open 
simplicity. My invitation ran thus : — 

" ' Mr. Sandford's compliments wait on Mr. Hawes. 
Mr. S. requests the pleasure of Mr. H.'s company, on 
Saturday next, to dine.' 

" The answer I returned thus : ' Mr. Hawes's com- 
pliments to Mr. Sandford. Mr. H. with pleasure 
accepts Mr. S.'s invitation, and will do himself the 
honor to answer his request.' 

" Now, whether these were agreeable to fashion 
or not, there is something in them which is unnatu- 
ral and affected. c When we are among the Eomans, 
we must do as the Eomans do.' False ! " 

This love of simplicity, and dislike of heartless 
conventionalisms, suffered no abatement in his later 
years. 

In the religious as well as mental improvement 
of his pupils he took the deepest interest. 

"Last evening," he writes, "I proposed to the 
children that they should request their parents' 
consent to learn the Catechism ; but few approved 
of it. Alas ! how much to be pitied are those chil- 
dren whose parents not only neglect them, but 
openly refuse to have them instructed in religion ! 
Their dear, immortal souls have app eared very near 
to me of late." 



26 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

But this young schoolmaster was as earnestly en- 
gaged in teaching the parents on Sundays as the 
children on week-days. " As the church continues 
to meet on the Sabbath for worship, I have procured 
Scott's Essay s, to read in preference to Emmons's 
Sermons. ... I have given up the idea of cate- 
chising the children ; so averse were the parents to 
a practice, which, I am confident, will be attended 
to, if ever New England shall see better days. The 
neglect of the instruction of youth is the inlet of 
every vice, and the flood-gates of infidelity. Could 
the faithfulness of our pious forefathers again be 
practised in training up children, quickly would the 
face of things be changed. 

" Feb. 23, 1811.— This day closed my school. So 
many things have contributed to my comfort and 
happiness, that the three months I have spent seem 
but a clay. As a token of good- will, I received from 
my scholars six dollars and forty-one cents, which ex- 
cited peculiar sensations in me. Their love I value 
much more than the money. 

"25th. — In company with Mr. P. Dickinson, left 
Medway, and arrived at college. By particular re- 
quest, I sent to my scholars a copy of the address I 
delivered to them. 

"March*17. — I have not enjoyed this holy Sab- 
bath as I ought ; and one reason is, that I have been 
disputing on metaphysical points, which does not 
tend to edify. Therefore avoid disputing as much 
as possible at all times, and wholly on the Lord's 

Day." 

The winter of 1811-12, Mr. Hawes spent in teach- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 27 

ing at Weymouth. He had anticipated much satis- 
faction in the school, and much enjoyment among 
the people ; but was, at first, greatly disappointed. 

"The schoolhouse," he writes, "is very inconve- 
nient and cold. The scholars are generally perverse 
and idle, and bear many marks of not being well 
instructed at home, and not properly regulated by 
former teachers. I find it impossible to infuse that 
spirit of emulation which alone can insure progress. 
Nothing of that affection for me, nothing of that 
promptitude to obey my orders, is to be found, 
which so happily existed in former schools; nor 
can I engage their feelings in any one point. It 
pains me, and renders my task very unpleasant. 

" Jan. 3, 1812. — Mr. D. A. Clark was ordained min- 
ister in this place the past week ; also the meeting- 
house was dedicated, the sermon being preached 
by Kev. Mr. Holly of Boston. From report, I had 
formed an unfavorable opinion of the man ; nor did 
I expect to hear any thing profound or good from 
him. I was happily disappointed. He possesses 
the qualifications requisite for an orator to a degree 
I have not witnessed in any other man. E. Griffin, 
D.D., preached the ordination-sermon. My opinion 
of this man was very much raised by his celebrity ; 
but from the trembling height of expectancy did 
his performance dash me. In ease, and affability of 
manner, he certainly fell far below Mr. Holly. 

" I have reviewed Euclid, much to my satisfac- 
tion, and, I hope, advantage. Mathematical studies, 
more than any other, form the mind to the habit of 
close thinking : they beget a clearness not to be 



28 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

obtained, I apprehend, by any other methods. With 
Newton, I know not but I must quarrel with my 
classics, or give up religion in the soul. I have be- 
come enthusiastically fond of them; and I must 
confess I am not a little desirous to obtain the hon- 
ors which crown the scholar. But for what ? Ah ! 
truly an important question, and no stranger at my 
door, though it seldom gains admittance. 

" Oh shame ! I sigh for human greatness, and long 
to realize what fancy often paints as true happiness, 
— that time when I, now a novus homo, shall be 
great and renowned. Begone, vain thought ! nor 
spread a shallow covering over my ignorance, naked- 
ness, want of personal qualities to form a man, and 
my destitution of all extrinsic means. Look at 
these ; and, if pride die not, surely its native soil is 
barrenness itself. Yet I do not envy the promotion 
of others : superior excellence never fails to spur 
me forward. I attempt large strides, but I slide 
back ; I labor much, but seemingly without success ; 
and, did I not hear others complaining of the same 
difficulties, I should despair of ever making further 
advances. 

"March 4. — Closed my school on the 21st of 
February, and, the Monday following, departed for 
Boston; the next day, arriving at college. Look- 
ing back on the vicissitudes of my life since I en- 
tertained a hope in Christ, I can frankly say that 
they have been pleasing ; and, though I would alter 
my conduct, my conditions and situations I would 
not wish to alter. When extremely ignorant, and 
wholly unqualified to teach a school advanced in 



LIFE OF DR. II AWES. 29 

science, I was, by the providence of God, placed in 
a situation where my ignorance did not expose me 
to insult, because there were none able to detect it. 
This was at Norton, where I kept close in my study, 
and made my appearance in public no more than 
was absolutely necessary. 

" By the blessing of God, having made some prog- 
ress in knowledge, I was removed to Medway, 
where the school was more advanced, and the 
people more enlightened. This was a condition in 
which I greatly profited. I consumed but little 
time in visiting. I have not those qualities neces- 
sary to render myself agreeable in mixed company : 
visiting in the manner usually conducted is only a 
waste of time. It fills me with pain and chagrin to 
reflect, after having spent some time in a circle of 
loquacious persons whose conversation never rises 
higher than mere chit-chat, that my time is wholly 
lost to myself and to others. Yet I have been so 
happy as not to give offence by refusing the invi- 
tations of the people. 

" God has strengthened me in the opening of this 
term. I have had a boldness and freedom in speak- 
ing for Christ which is unusual for me. College is 
in a lamentable state in regard to religion. De- 
cency is indeed prevalent among the students; but 
decency and godly fear are very different things." 

At the time when Mr. Hawes entered college, 
candidates for the ministry often devoted considera- 
ble time in their college-course to the study of 
theology, in order that, after a few months spent 
with some experienced pastor, they might the earlier 



30 LIFE OF DR. II AWES. 

enter on their work. He very soon, however, aban- 
doned the idea of doing, at the same time, two so 
difficult things as laying a foundation, and rearing 
npon it the superstructure : so he wisely left the- 
ology for a separate and later course. Yet, from 
his natural tastes, his reading was very much in the 
theological direction. He perceived the advantage 
of examinino; the wrons: side as well as the rifflit ; 
and he felt that no subject was thoroughly mas- 
tered till he had looked at it from all sides : this 
led him to such authors as Hume, Godwin, Boling- 
broke, Voltaire, Priestley, and others of the same 
stamp. 

" I admire them for the acuteness of their minds ; 
thank them for the correction of some of my false 
notions, and for many good ideas which they con- 
vey; and I despise them for the base prostitution 
of their faculties, in cutting asunder the bands of 
freedom, and lowering the standard of morality and 
religion." 

Still later, he became even more decided in his ap- 
preciation of a broad and solid ground-work for the 
Christian ministry. " As I advance in knowledge and 
experience, I feel more and more the importance of 
general science to a proper discharge of the minis- 
terial duties ; and, the longer I live, the more firmly 
am I fixed in the opinion, — which I half suspected 
was true during my junior year, — that to antici- 
pate professional studies, in a preparatory education, 
is worse than merely to lose the time. It confirms 
the mind in the worst habits of study, and shows a 
person chargeable with the absurdity of building 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 31 

his superstructure without a foundation. The lec- 
tures on anatomy, chemistry, and materia medica, 
which I have this season attended, have opened to 
my mind a new, enchanting, and magical field of 
wonders. 

" During the present term, I have been made to 
drink of the bitter cup of affliction. My sister 
Fanny, even when I supposed that she was enjoying 
perfect health, was cut down by the hand of Death. 
May this- admonish me of my own frailty, and excite 
me to more diligence in the service of my Creator ! " 

On returning from his second winter of teaching 
in Medway, he writes, — 

"My residence in Medway has been pleasant, 
and, in many respects, profitable. The people in 
that place are apparently in the very last stages' of 
the hectic of avarice : it has preyed on every noble 
principle of human nature, and consumed all but its 
own sordid dust. Eeligion has taken her flight; 
public spirit has given up the ghost ; intellectual 
improvement limps around the anvil or work-bench, 
or in vice-begetting and soul-debasing factories, or 
hovers in the cramping counting-house. This is not 
too highly colored. They are rapidly increasing in 
wealth; and as rapidly do they grow in the love 
of it." 

The rubs of college-life were to Mr. Hawes, as 
to many young men, of material advantage. Some 
lofty aspirations he failed to realize ; some schemes 
of fancy which he constructed vanished in thin air ; 
some plans, entered on in haste, ended in disap- 
pointment, and in humorous reflections concerning 



32 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

the rock whence he was hewn, and the hole of the 
pit whence he was digged. 

" To act deliberately," he says, "is one mode of 
wisdom. Attention to this would have saved me 
from some painful feelings, and from the loss of 
very pleasant anticipations. Plad I waited the issue 
of plans which I had arranged, every thing un- 
pleasant would have been avoided; but, trusting to 
unsolid ground, I fell through. Learn from experi- 
ence. After all, I ought always to remember that 
I am a novns homo, just emerging from obscurity ; 
that I have not yet risen far enough from my 
horizon to become visible to those who never look 
for a light in that part of the firmament. It will be 
better for me, at present, to draw a cloud over my 
face, that, when I do break forth, it may be. with the 
greater effulgence ; for that my former acquaint- 
ance do underrate me, I have no doubt. I have 
need of almost .every thing; but that I am so abject 
as, I am apprehensive, some think, is, to be sure, an 
opinion natural enough for those to entertain who 
knew me in the days of my humiliation, but is by 
no means true. A substance, rusty and ill shaped, 
may admit of a higher polish, and of a more beauti- 
ful symmetry than the vile tinsel whose false 
glare and brittleness baffle the artist's most cunning 
device. I have not a little pride in striving, and, I 
believe, not without success, to overstep those creep- 
ing weeds which once spread their twigs, vainly 
luxuriant, over me. I wish not to be supercilious, 
but to show them the folly of judging any thing 
before the time. Nor will I drop my bait to be 



LIFE OF DR. HAWBS. 33 

nibbled by smelts and tadpoles, who frequent shoals 
and shallows : I will withhold till my line will per- 
mit me to fish in deep water." 

During the latter part of the senior year, the 
grammar-school in Providence becoming vacant, 
the president offered the place to Mr. Hawes. 

" Need and other concurring circumstances were 
inducements sufficient for me to engage it. It 
renders my present duties arduous. But a life of 
labor, I trust, is the one designed for me : if so, 
health, and every thing else necessary to perform it, 
will be granted me. Thus has it been ever since I 
began my studies. Never any capital which would 
enable me to anticipate my wants, and thus prevent 
them, but, when they have occurred, some way, fre- 
quently unforeseen and often unsought, has been 
opened for their supply. Let me always be fed 
from the hand of God : it will prevent the folly of 
calling aught my own." 

Mr. Hawes's character, as a scholar, naturally led 
him to be looked on by some in the class as a com- 
petitor for college honors. This excited feelings in 
them which caused him disappointment and pain. 

" The closing scenes of a collegiate course are, 
contrary to my expectations, full of bitterness. 
The rewarding of literary merit, though a power- 
ful incentive to improvement, often elicits passions 
the most vile. The recipients of such rewards al- 
ways become the objects of envy, and frequently 
of hatred. The near approach of the time which is 
to weigh the different merit of my classmates, 
depicts, on the countenance of too many, passions 



34 LIFE OF DR. II AWES. 

which have for a long time been repressed only by 
the constant struggles of propriety and conscience. 
May I never envy, though I emulate, the merits of 
others ! " 

As he advanced, Mr. Hawes felt more and more 
the lack of early culture ; but he possessed fine 
native ability, and appreciated his privileges all the 
more from having . commenced his studies so late. 
His class numbered about forty ; almost all of whom, 
at the outset, were far ahead of him. It contained 
a good number of superior scholars, who became 
distinguished in after-life ; yet Joel Hawes, though 
employed in teaching nearly one-fourth part of the 
term-time during his college-course, by dint of hard 
work, went steadily up from about the lowest point, 
till at his graduation, Sept. 1, 1813, he had attained 
the second rank. 

Writes Dr. Pond of Bangor Seminary, who was 
a classmate, " I soon found that Hawes was to be a 
leading spirit. He did not put himself offensively 
forward ; but his character and abilities placed him 
forward : not only in the daily routine of study, but 
in every thing pertaining to life and godliness, he 
stood erect and foremost, and was an example to us 
all. I loved him and honored him from the first; 
and, when I obtained strength to come out openly 
on the Lord's side, I looked up to him as a guide 
and counsellor. 

"As a scholar, Brother Hawes stood in the first 
rank. There were those in the class whose early 
opportunities had been greater than his, and who 
excelled him in some branches of classical learn- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 35 

ing ; but as a thinker, a writer, a sound and skilful 
debater, a public speaker, he had no equal. The 
meetings of our old Theological Society, could they 
be recalled, would bear ample witness to this. 
There were many in the class who had no sympathy 
with him in his religious views : but even they 
would listen to him ; for his marked ability, his 
good judgment, his sterling character, his conscien- 
tious and consistent regard for the true and the 
right, secured their respect. 

" There are some good men, who, in the considera- 
tion of moral and religious questions, encounter no 
difficulties. They float along easily with the cur- 
rent, acquiescing readily with the dicta of their 
teachers and the creed of their church, and ask no 
questions. But such was not the case with Brother 
Hawes. He was quick to discover difficulties, and 
incapable of evading them. He entered into them 
heartily, .heroically ; and though it seemed some- 
times as if he would be overset, yet he always 
righted in the end." 

Rev. Thomas Shepard, of Bristol, R.I., who was 
a room-mate as well as class-mate of Mr. Hawes, 
speaks of him as excelling in debate and English 
composition. 

"I happened to see him," he says, " on his 
entrance into the college-grounds from the street in 
front. His appearance was that of a country youth 
gazing upon the magnificence of the edifice before 
him. His fitting was quite meagre, even for that 
day of small things ; but by . intense application, 
often reaching far into the watches of the night, he 



36 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

soon gained an enviable standing in the class. It 
was not, however, until the third or fourth year, 
that the peculiar powers of his mind were more 
fully developed. 

" In his moral and religious character and influence, 
he may be said to have taken the lead in his class. 
His previous training, subsequently to his conver- 
sion, was decidedly orthodox. He was thoroughly 
posted in the systems of theology as taught by 
Emmons, Crane, and other lights of that early clay, 
and could handle them with convincing power in 
debate. 

" Several years his junior, I entered college with- 
out any fixed principles in Christian doctrines ; and 
I owe much to the kind and faithful instruction of 
my class-mate and room-mate Hawes. Others would 
bear the same testimony to his zeal and fidelity in 
his Master's service, could their voice be heard. 

" Revivals in college at that date were almost 
unknown. Brown University was especially remiss 
in the leading influence of its Faculty as to the 
spiritual interests of its students. Its president, 
about the time of our graduation, or soon after, was 
reported as in decided sympathy with Unitarianism." 



CHAPTER n. 



Seminary Course. — Assistant in Phillips Academy. — Licensure. — 
Preaclies as a Candidate. — Call and Settlement at Hartford. 



FROM college, Mr. Hawes went to his home in 
Brookfield. Here he engaged zealously in the 
study of Hebrew, and in reviewing his Greek. 
" Let me not lose a single moment of my time," 
he writes : "it is all God's ; yea, all I possess is his. 
Give me grace to be faithful in the use of it." 

A question of no small- moment, at this stage, 
met this earnest student. Should he seek a short 
course into the ministry with some pastor ? or 
should he take the longer one at the seminary ? It 
was a matter on which good men were then more 
divided than they are at present. Until 1808, the 
short course had been the only one in New England, 
and had produced many strong men, and good 
preachers. There were several distinguished pastor- 
teachers, — Emmons, Burton, Bacchus, and Smalley, 
— who continued their courses of instruction. There 
were also in the Church the " Taste " party and the 
"Exercise" party, the High Calvinists, the Low 
Calvinists, the No-Calvinists, and the Anti-Calvinists. 

Some thought the Andover school was on one 
side, and some on the other ; and some did not seem 

37 



38 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

to know where it was, or whether it could be 
trusted. To this last class belonged Dr. Emmons 
and a very few others, who were not quite sure 
that it would be safe for the Massachusetts ministers 
to form a General Association. 

In these circumstances, Mr. Hawes listened to the 
views of both sides, received their advice, and then 
went to Andover to make trial for himself. His 
second entry in his memoranda, after having been 
there a few weeks, manifests a little not unnatural 
scepticism on this question. 

"It has been remarked by some judicious divines, 
that the knowledge of the students in this semi- 
nary is not generally accurate and well defined. 
An indefiniteness in their ideas shows that they 
have viewed subjects at a distance and in haste. 
They do not view them in different attitudes, and, 
by a just analysis, acquire a knowledge of their 
several parts. This is a fault against which I have 
peculiar reasons to be guarded. No man can excel 
in every thing ; no man can effect any thing if he 
does not, in some measure, concentrate the energies 
of his mind, and bring them to bear on some one 
point. Every man has his strong and his weak 
side. He only can- act with success who knows 
where his strength lies. Let the great object of 
life be one, and fixed; and let all his efforts be 
directed with a view to its accomplishment. My 
object is to preach the gospel to the poor and 
ignorant. To excel in biblical criticism I never 
can: my mind cannot submit to the niceties, cu- 
rious speculations, and ingenious conjectures, with 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 39 

which many parts of this subject abound. My 
labor, therefore, in this department, must be subor- 
dinate, and my views of it very general. An 
enlarged and definite knowledge of the doctrines 
of the gospel, all of which may be gathered essen- 
tially from the most inaccurate copy of the Sacred 
Scriptures, I look upon as much more important 
to me than a knowledge of those nice criticisms on 
select passages of Scripture which are sometimes 
nothing more than logomachy. It would be ab- 
surd for me to set no value on biblical criticism : 
it is doubtless important ; and those who have 
contributed their exertions to bring it to its present 
state of accuracy deserve to be remembered with 
particular gratitude. I only insist that it is not 
necessary that every man should be an accurate 
biblical critic in order to become a useful preacher. 
Let those who have time and talents to devote to 
such investigations apply themselves to them, and 
give us the result of their inquiries." 

A year at Anclover enlarged his horizon, and 
somewhat modified his views in regard to the semi- 
nary. 

" This institution is, I think, peculiarly fitted to 
make 'patriotic Christians. Active statesmen are 
much more needed in the kingdom of Christ than 
mere theorists, however profound and ingenious ; 
and here they are trained. During the last term 
I experienced much that affords occasion of joy and 
gratitude. My temporal wants were all supplied; 
and, blessed be God ! I was not left in entire spiritual 
poverty. My soul did sometimes rest with conn- 



40 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

dence and delight in the blessed Saviour ; and I en- 
joyed a happiness in contemplating his character 
which the world can neither give to me nor take 
from me. I desire to live to him only, and to 
have no interest but his ; no cause but his ; no 
happiness but such as springs from his smiles. . . . 
I have much need of watchfulness over a naturally 
impetuous temper, especially so when sharpened by 
opposition. Let a meek, forgiving, and forbearing 
temper be exhibited towards all my brethren." 

No one ever passes severer criticism on an enemy 
than this clear-sighted but sometimes desponding 
Christian writes clown against himself: — 

" Aug. 25, 1815. — I find, ki looking over what I 
have written in this intermittent journal, so much 
of which I ought to be ashamed, that I feel strongly 
inclined to burn the whole of it, and once more 
begin a new course of life. Pride and vanity and 
ambition and rashness and fickleness, and deaclness 
of religious affection, make up the principal ingre- 
dients of my past life. A retrospection of my con- 
duct sickens me ; I cannot look at it without shame : 
it is loathsome. Must the future be like it? Oh 
painful thought ! I could hardly desire life, were I 
certain that it must be so checkered with folly and 
sin. 

■ " I am almost afraid to hope for better days ; almost 
weary of forming resolutions." 

At the close of the junior year, Mr. Hawes was 
offered the position of assistant teacher in Phillips 
Academy. He was reluctant to have his course of 
study interrupted ; and he had no special taste for 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 41 

teaching. Besides, lie felt that to engage in it for 
any considerable time must exert a contracting in- 
fluence on the mind and character ; yet he was in- 
duced by his pecuniary necessities, as well as by his 
hope of doing good to the youth connected with the 
academy, to accept the invitation. 

Near the close of this year of instruction, he 
writes, — 

. " Many things have contributed to make my con- 
nection with this school agreeable. The scholars are 
remarkably amiable, and have shown me the utmost 
respect. Their kind and affectionate demeanor, 
their teachableness, their general love of study, 
their promptness in their recitations, have so en- 
deared them to me, that I cannot remember them 
but with peculiar emotions of friendship and affec- 
tion. During the last ten days of my engagement, 
a very general seriousness prevailed in school. Many 
appeared to be deeply impressed with their lost and 
ruined state. To me, it was the most interesting 
season I ever enjoyed. It was new. The scholars 
soon dispersed for the vacation • and what will be 
the result, God only knows. It was, I hope, a season 
of refreshing to my dry and thirsty soul ; and I have 
unspeakable reason to bless God for this kind visita- 
tion. I earnestly pray, that, when the students re- 
assemble, the divine power and mercy may be seen 
in the midst of them." 

Mr. Hawes was associated with that accomplished 
teacher, John Adams, LL.D., who was, for so many 
years, principal of Phillips Academy. The following 



42 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

warm tribute to him conies under date of Aug. 25, 
1815: — 

" Mr. Adams is a man pre-eminently qualified for 
his station. His mind, naturally above the ordinary 
stamp, has acquired stores of knowledge which 
would enable him to fill acceptably a station much 
more elevated than the one he now occupies. His 
decisions are marked with such firmness, mingled 
with love, that very few of his pupils wish, and none 
attempt, to shake them. He feels for them the 
solicitude of a father ; but his piety is his most shin- 
ing ornament. Faults he has ; but they are the 
faults of schoolmasters, — not congenial to his na- 
ture, but the result of his employment." 

During the year of his teaching, Mr. Hawes came 
to a question, which, earlier or later, meets almost 
every one, — that of a companion. He began to be 
conscious of a social need, — to feel that " it is not 
good for man to be alone." His consecration to the 
ministry also made it desirable that he should be 
joined in that work by some intelligent, genial, 
Christian woman. He was therefore prepared to 
believe that " whoso fincleth a wife findeth a good 
thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord." 

He took up the subject with deliberation, and 
proceeded in it intelligently and prayerfully ; and, 
when Miss Louisa Fisher of Wrentham was named 
as one worthy of his confidence and love, his course 
was simple and direct. After an acquaintance of 
only a single week, he was so drawn to her through 
his tastes, and by respect and affection, that a mat- 
rimonial offer was made \ and she was so drawn to 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 43 

him, that ; in due time, it was accepted. Of the 
wisdom of this arrangement, almost fifty years of 
mutual helpfulness and happiness are the amplest 
justification. 

The first mention of this* subject in the journal is 
in the spirit of that conspicuous Christian honesty 
and simplicity which ruled him in every thing ; 
and while the marriage relation, as instituted in 
the creation of man, male and female, was clothed 
in his mind with a most delicate reverence, yet there 
is also something higher than happiness, to which 
he felt it should be made subservient. 

" The choice of a companion, during the last year, 
I consider as one of the most important occurrences, 
— one which will undoubtedly influence my hap- 
piness and usefulness through life. In forming this 
connection, I am able to look back, and say, ' I have 
sought wisdom and direction from above.' Before 
I had ever seen Miss F., I prayed that I might be 
restrained from taking a single step which would in 
the least divert me from the greairbusiness of life, 
or diminish my usefulness. To this I was influenced 
by a consciousness of my liability to go astray. I 
am happy in the assurance, that the object of my 
sincere affection will deem no sacrifice too great to 
be made for the promotion of my happiness and 
usefulness ; that she regards my happiness as her 
own ; that she has talents to secure my lasting re- 
spect, sweetness of disposition to win my constant 
love, elegance of manners sufficient to please me 
and my company, vivacity to cheer my desponding 
hours, and kindness to overlook the many imper- 
fections of my own character." 



44 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

For a time after closing his connection with the 
academy, Mr. Hawes was again in doub,t whether to 
finish the two remaining years in the seminary, or 
study a few months with Dr. Emmons, and then go 
to Princeton, where he could at any time leave. He 
finally decided to remain at Andover. Later in life, 
he explained how he was led to this decision : — 

" In conversation with Dr. Woods on the subject, 
the latter said decidedly, c Come back.' I have 
always felt that this advice changed my whole course ; 
and, had I not followed it, the loss would have been 
irreparable." 

When his plans were fully decided, he entered 
with a fresh zeal into the study of theology. All 
his doubts as to the expediency of remaining gave 
way to assurance and delight ; but he expresses a 
fear lest his love of systematic theology was drawing 
him too much from his Bible and the keeping of his 
heart. In a letter dated Nov. 20, 1815, he says, — 

" It is unpleasant, I do assure you, to think, that, 
in two short years, I must leave this consecrated spot, 
this paradise, and launch into a world of noise and 
tumult. Here, without interruption, and under the 
best advantages, I can pursue the study of the noblest 
subjects which can attract the attention of intel- 
ligent beings. You must believe me when I inform 
you that I begin once more to love my studies, — to 
bend my mind to close and constant investigation. 
The pleasure of success rewards me for all my toil ; 
and every step I take in advance serves only to 
increase my ardor, and to strengthen my resolution 
to press forward. Don't imagine from this, now, 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 45 

that I am seized with some strange phrensy of be- 
coming a great man. No, verily : I became sick 
of that vain project long since. I know too well the 
soil I have to cultivate ever to expect a crop exceed- 
ing thirty-fold. It was neglected so long, and was, 
at the time I came in possession of it, so overrun 
with all kinds of noxious weeds, that little else can 
be expected from my constant and most vigorous 
efforts than to keep them down, and perhaps to gather 
some stinted fruits. 

" We met last Sabbath, for the first time, in the 
chapel, for public worship. Dr. Porter preached two 
excellent sermons. For this new arrangement I am 
quite overjoyed. Andover is the pleasantest place 
on earth. I don't know but I shall become so at- 
tached to it, that I shall desire and strive to stay a 
year or two longer after- my regular studies are 
closed. Some of my good friends in Franklin would 
be almost ready to stone me, should this project 
come to their ears ; but friends are sometimes dan- 
gerous guides, and I have long since laid aside my 
leading-strings. 

"Dec. 15. — This day I reached the object for 
which I have been laboring eight years. My first 
sermon I preached this morning in our chapel from 
Luke xxiv. 41, — c They believed not for joy.' In 
my private meditation on this exercise, I have some- 
times felt with such force the impropriety and folly 
of timidity in delivering the message of God, that I 
thought it impossible I should be agitated and dis- 
composed; but, when I entered the chapel, the 
sight of the sacred desk almost overcame me. It 



46 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

was not properly timidity : a certain awe struck my 
mind, which discomposed me for a few minutes ; after 
which I proceeded with much more freedom than 
I anticipated." 

From the standing of Mr. Hawes as a scholar 
and an earnest Christian preacher, he was much 
sought as a candidate for the pastoral office. He 
received invitations to supply the pulpit in Beverly 
and Newburyport, and, in his last vacation, went to 
the latter place to be licensed and to preach. In 
going from Andover to Newburyport, he says, — 

"I spent a short time in the family of Deacon 
Hazeltine, father of Mrs. Judson; and was much 
delighted. 

" May 2. — To-clay I arrived at Newburyport, 
and was very kindly received by Dr. Spring. 

" May 12. — I am perfectly charmed with Mrs. 
Spring. She possesses a superior mind, enriched 
by a knowledge of books and of life. She has a 
refined taste, an easy elegance of manners, a lively, 
cheerful temper, and a most tender regard for the 
feelings of others. A careful attention to domes- 
tic concerns has not destroyed the polish of the 
lady. The children are remarkably amiable; and 
the language of affectionate endearment in which 
the whole family address each other is expressive 
of the kindness that reigns within. I am perfectly 
satisfied that the advice of the Vicar of Wakefield 
is important, — that the forms of politeness ought to 
be kept up among those who are most intimate, 
and who have daily intercourse with each other : 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 47 

it has a tendency to soften and refine the feelings, 
and to prepare persons to appear with ease and pro- 
priety in company. 

"May 13. — To-day I received license to preach 
the gospel from the Essex Middle Association [now 
Essex North] . I devoutly thank my heavenly Fa- 
ther for putting me into the sacred office. It is 
my earnest desire to spend my strength and my life 
in this good work. 

" 14th. — This evening, preached for Dr. Dana. A 
very numerous audience in a very large house. I 
felt, after the first prayer, quite at home, and deliv- 
ered my sermon with much greater ease than I 
expected. The sermon has excited a great deal of 
attention. Some are ready to denounce me as a 
heretic, and others think they have never heard 
any thing better. Some cry one thing, and some 
another; and the greater part, I suppose, know not 
for what they cry. I am sorry to find I crossed 
Dr. Dana's theology. It appears that he stands 
upon one corner of the triangle, and believes that 
men are naturally unable to comply with the terms 
of salvation. This I cannot but regard as a perni- 
cious error; and, not once thinking I should run 
against him, I strenuously opposed it. I am not 
certain what the effect will be, on the whole. I am 
told that there is a great deal of talk about my sen- 
timents ; and I cannot but hope the truth will gain 
ground. If this is to be the manner of my recep- 
tion in the world, I shaH need much fortitude, and 
a very strong attachment to the truth. I cannot 
accuse myself of imprudence in this thing. My 



48 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

sermon received the unqualified approbation of the 
professor at Andover; and I cannot, therefore, think 
there is any thing in it heretical. It is painful to 
cross the feelings of good people ; But, when they 
stand in the way of truth, they must bear the con- 
sequences. 

" May 20. — This evening, preached for Dr. 
Spring. A large assembly, and quite attentive. 
The excitement produced by the sermon I preached 
for Dr. Dana has not yet subsided; and probably 
many were induced to attend this evening, that 
they might hear for themselves what the babbler had 
to say. I preached on the character of Paul ; and, 
so far as I have learned, the impression was favora- 
ble. I cannot but hope that the storm will subside 
without doing much hurt, and that the water will 
become more pure and placid after the agitation. 
Dr. Dana thought it his duty to do away the im- 
pression made by my sermon, by preaching against 
my leading sentiment the next Sabbath. 

" June 1. — Preached for Dr. Spring, afternoon 
and evening, from Pro v. xvii. 16. A vindication of 
my sentiments from misrepresentation, as well as 
the solicitation of friends, induced me to preach this 
sermon again in Newburyport. I have been informed 
that some who complained before are now more paci- 
fied ; many who heard dreadful things about it are 
satisfied, on hearing it themselves, that it is no such 
horrible stuff as some have pretended ; and others, 
I have no doubt, feel sorer than ever, because a sec- 
ond hearing only increased the number of arrows, 
and drove the first deeper. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 49 

u The house was very full, especially in the even- 
ing ; so that many were obliged to go away for the 
want of room. I thought of the motto which I 
have borrowed from Knox, 6 Spare no arrows ; ' and 
so I showered down what I had previously prepared, 
and many others which came to hand at the time. 
The good people here are quite confident good has 
been clone ; and, if so, I am satisfied, whatever may 
be the effect in regard to myself." 

Mr. Hawes called on Dr. Dana ; and they had a 
free conversation on the subject of the sermon. 
" He seems satisfied that I had no design to cross 
his feelings. 

" On the whole, I think I should conclude, that, 
among strangers, it is safest, and perhaps in most 
cases best, to preach on general subjects in which 
serious people are all agreed. I have nothing to 
repent of in regard to this subject. I acted as I 
thought duty required ; and I cannot but hope that 
the final result will be good. I suspect the trials 
which ministers have to endure from good people 
require quite as much patience and fortitude as those 
from the wicked. The Lord guide me ! 

" I do love very much to pass an hour with a 
very few select friends, with whom I may indulge 
without restraint the social feelings, and join in easy, 
familiar conversation. Since I have been in this 
place, I have had the exquisite pleasure of spending 
a few seasons in this manner ; and a remembrance 
of them now fills me with delight. But the parties 
which I have attended I cannot recollect with any 
pleasure. And of one thing I am quite confident : I 



50 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

shall never attend many, let me settle where I may ; 
or, if I attend them, it shall be in my own way. I 
will not submit to the miserable restraints which the 
'stiff forms of a corrupt politeness impose, nor give 
any support to habits of intercourse which are as 
unfriendly to morals as to happiness. Oh ! I dread, 
as I should the desolating sirocco, that listlessness and 
apparent emptiness of mind which recoil at the labor 
of thinking, and can be pleased only with story- 
telling; or the common chit-chat of a tea-table. I 
do mourn that ministers are so apt to let their social 
hours pass without doing the business of their office, 
without saying more on the great subject of religion. 
People expect it, and have a right to expect it. 
Many good Christians are grieved by seeing minis- 
ters no more disposed to converse on religious sub- 
jects. 

" June 10. — Preached this evening in Dr. Spring's 
vestry to a very crowded and attentive assembly. 
The doctor closed the service ; and I shall not soon 
forget the emotions that were excited in my mind 
by his very affectionate remembrance of me in his 
prayer. I do feel that many good people will be 
engaged, by the language and example of this ven- 
erable man, to supplicate in my behalf the blessing 
of Heaven. After meeting, the doctor introduced 
a subject which had often been mentioned to me by 
individuals of his society. It has for some time 
been the wish of the people, and lately of Dr. Spring 
himself, to settle a colleague ; and, after a short ac- 
quaintance, it seems they fixed their eyes on me. 
The unguarded, and in some cases not very delicate, 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 51 

mention of the subject by individuals, I did not 
much regard. 

u Such people are not apt to think how dangerous 
it is to approach the heart with the torch of flattery. 
They are not apprised of its combustible nature. I 
hope this somewhat unexpected approbation of my 
services did not elate me ; and when my friends have 
told me about my settling in some large, populous 
place, — a thing of which I had never dreamt a few 
months since, — I have felt like saying, 

' popular applause ! what heart of man 
Is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms ? 
The wisest and the best feel urgent need 
Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales ; 
But, swelled into a gust, who then, alas ! 
With all his canvas spread, and inexpert, 
And therefore heedless, can withstand thy power ? ' 

"June 11. — Came to Bradford by stage, and 
engaged to preach a lecture in the academy. It 
was an interesting little audience. Many appeared 
to be tender, and wept during the sermon." 

On his return to the seminary, he writes, — 

" The vacation has passed very pleasantly, and, 
I hope, not without profit to myself and others. I 
have preached sixteen sermons ; have attended 
many conference meetings ; have formed many new 
acquaintances ; have seen much good company ; 
have been, for the most part, happy in mind ; and 
have found my seasons of devotion sweet. 

" And now, my Father ! I give myself, and all I 
have, to thee. I would be thine, and thine forever." 

A short time after his return to the seminary, he 



52 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

learned that a lady had been very angry with him 
for the first sermon he preached at Newburyport, 
and had determined never to hear him again. She 
was, however, led to reverse her purpose, and went 
a second time. She was awakened and convicted, 
and, in a few days, gave evidence of the new life. 
In a letter dated July 21, 1817, he writes, " I feel 
thankful to God for thus blessing my poor services ; 
and I pray that I may never be discouraged in the 
good work. If I never reap any more fruit, this 
will be worth living for, worth wearing out for." 

While matters were advancing at Newburyport, 
the attention of the First Church in Hartford, Conn., 
was directed to him ; and he was invited to supply 
the pulpit there on leaving the seminary. Mr. 
Hawes gave an undecided answer, on account of 
his interest in the former place ; but finally complied 
with the request. In a letter to his friend, he writes, 
" I sometimes feel afraid that I have done wrong in 
determining to go to Hartford. The duties of the 
place, I much fear, will surpass my ability; but this 
is not the most trying consideration. I have crossed 
the feelings of many clear friends at Newburyport. 
I have been invited to return there without a 
single dissenting voice in the society ; and yester- 
day I received a letter from Mr. P. Couch, a sick 
man, of whom you have heard me speak. The dear 
man cries like a child, and says I should not hesitate 
a moment if I had ' heard the prayers and sighs ' 
which he has heard in his sick-room in my behalf. 
It is very trying to cross the feelings of such kind 
and affectionate friends : but I have acted as I 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 53 

thought duty directed • and now I leave the result 
with God." 

The close of Mr. Hawes's studies at Anclover had 
now arrived. Arrangements had been made for the 
graduating-exercises, which occurred on Wednesday, 
the 24th of September, 1817, the valedictory being 
assigned to him. In his journal he says, — 

u I feel that these marks of distinction are cal- 
culated to inflate. I think I can say, these are not 
the treasures I most desire. Before the appoint- 
ment, I felt happy in the belief that some other one 
had been assigned to perform the duty. I hope I 
aspire to something more solid and, durable than 
human applause." 

The Saturday following his graduation, Mr. Hawes 
went to Hartford, and, the next day, preached his 
first sermon in that city. On leaving Anclover, he 
says, "I felt as though I had forsaken every thing 
I loved. The four years I spent in that seminary I 
place among the happiest and most improving of 
my whole life." 

At first, he was not pleased with the appearance 
of things at Hartford. There were then, as now, 
some contrasts between the people of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut, which his eye readily discovered. 
He was struck with what he calls " a less familiar 
courtesy, and an apparent coldness," a kind of " neg- 
ative quality in almost every thing." 

Yet he was impressed with the intelligence of the 
congregation, and the importance of the position. 
The day after his first services, he writes, — 



54 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

"■ I was wearied with my journey, and distracted 
by the various occurrences of the week : but, as no 
person was engaged to supply the desk, I was under 
the necessity of commencing my services here in 
very unfavorable circumstances ; and I feel sure, that, 
since I began to preach, I have never performed less 
to my mind. I am out of my soundings ; and you 
must not think it strange if you see me, in a few 
weeks, afloat in old Massachusetts. I have never 
preached to such a congregation before. The one 
in Park Street is inferior in respect to number, char- 
acter, elegance, and, I believe, in every other respect. 
I confess, when I rose to address them, I felt not a 
little disconcerted. Imagine yourself in a large, 
splendid church, in a desk so high that it makes one 
dizzy to look around him, having before you judges, 
governors, lawyers, doctors, merchants, and people 
in the highest grades of society, and you may have 
some idea of my situation yesterday. . . . 

" So far as I know, the people think favorably 
of my performance ; but they know too much for 
me." 

Like Jonah, under this burden of responsibility, 
he had half a mind to flee to some Tarsus. With 
David, he exclaims, " Oh that I had wings like a 
dove ! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. 
Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the 
wilderness." 

In his letter, he continues : " I would labor where 
God places me ; but I have not wisdom to take 
charge of this great people. I feel strongly inclined 
to break away from this place, and from Newbury- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 55 

port too, and offer myself for settlement in some 
small country-town, where I would willingly spend 
my life in training up a little flock for heaven, far 
from the splendor, the noise, and the trials of a city 
congregation." 

Thirty-five years later, with reference to this first 
Sabbath, he says, "I shall never forget the im- 
pression made on my mind when I first passed up 
the broad aisle to enter this pulpit. I seemed to be 
in the midst of an assembly of Koman senators, so 
thickly scattered in every part of the house were 
the grave and venerable men to whom I have re- 
ferred. Their heads, hoary with age and with honor, 
and their upturned countenances, so intelligent, so 
dignified, so devout and thoughtful, filled me with 
awe as I beheld them ; and, for a moment, I shrank 
at the thought of standing up to preach in such a 
presence." 

After six Sabbaths, the committee wished Mr. 
Hawes to continue his trial-services six Sabbaths 
longer. The fashion of the churches in this respect 
has since greatly changed. People, in those days, 
had not reached that kind of intuition, by which, in 
a single Sabbath, they now seem able to discern the 
good qualities of a minister with sufficient clearness 
to elect him to the pastoral office, and then, as some- 
times happens, by a similar infelicitous sagacity, in 
less than a single year give him an ignominious dis- 
missal. The Hartford people moved more cautiously 
and securely. 

The principal objection to a compliance with this 
request lay in Mr. Hawes's feeling of insufficiency 



56 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

for the place. Yet he says, " Providence seems to 
have sent me here ; and, though many things render 
me somewhat reluctant to remain, I dare not run 
away." 

Meantime, he made a journey to Newark, N. J., 
stopping at New Haven. 

"Nov. 5. — Attended the ordination of Mr. Fitch, 
and his induction into the office of professor of the- 
ology in Yale College. The services were not very 
interesting: a common fault adhered to them, — they 
were too long ; and this was occasioned, as usual, by 
a want of pertinency. Each one must go through 
the whole service, instead of confining himself strict- 
ly to the part assigned him." 

Fifty-two years later, at the recent anniversary of 
the Theological Seminary at New Haven, Dr. Fitch, 
weighed down with the infirmities of age, was led 
into the meeting of the alumni, to whom he said a 
few tender and touching words : — 

" This seminary has been the means of great good. 
If I see results from it further, it will be in another 
stage of being ; for I must soon go the way of my 
fathers. ... In the other world I may be per- 
mitted to flit about the scenes of this, and, with the 
angels, witness the progress of Christ's kingdom. 
... I take leave of my brethren ; but there is a 
great kingdom before us, and a great Lord to bear 
us on his heart of love." 

After an absence of five or six weeks, Mr. Hawes 
returned to Hartford. 

" Travelling," he says, " is to me very unpleasant. 
I do not possess those habits which are necessary to 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 57 

render it profitable ; and, among strangers, I seldom 
enjoy much happiness. I am, on the whole, glad 
that I took the journey ; though I found it much less 
interesting and improving than I expected. 

" Whilst I remain here, it is needful for me to be 
governed by rule. I must not see company in the 
forenoon : this must be devoted to study. I must 
rise early, and take suitable exercise. In my inter- 
course with the people, I must act the minister 
more than I have. I must be about my Father's 
business, wherever I am. 

"Jan. 11, 1818. — To-day I closed my term of 
probation in this place. I have preached ten Sab- 
baths, and have aimed to give them as fair a speci- 
men of my style, manner, and sentiments as I was 
.able. I have preached with all that plainness and 
pungency which I should wish to use in preaching 
to those whom I never expect to meet again in this 
world. 

" What the result will be is to me of small 
importance in comparison with the consciousness I 
feel of having sincerely attempted to do my duty. 
I feel an attachment to the people here, and have 
reason to believe I could be happy in their so- 
ciety. 

"I cannot make myself believe that these fine 
folks and fastidious lawyers will wish to have me 
every Sabbath showering barbed arrows at them, 
especially as they are thrown without any of those 
embellishments of oratory and manner which such 
people principally value. But the event will soon 
show. Sure I am that I have not taken a single 



58 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

step, more or less, for the sake of pleasing them : 
and whether they keep me, or send me away, I shall 
not take off my hat; no, not to one of them." 

Mr. Hawes had been before the people nearly 
three months. They had been hearing other and 
older, and perhaps more profound men, — Dr. Hum- 
phrey, afterwards President of Amherst College ; 
and Prof. Burgess of Vermont University. 

After this term of trial, the way was open for the 
action of the church and society • and it was taken 
according to the usages and principles of primitive 
Congregationalism : — 

66 It was voted unanimously, That the church 
desires to unite with the society in giving Mr. Joel 
Hawes an invitation to take the pastoral charge of 
this church and society. 

Deacox Joseph Steward, Moderator. 

Seth Terry, Clerk." 

Next came the action of the society, passing a 
concurrent vote of invitation with three other 
votes, — one to inform the church of the action of 
the society ; the second, to fix the salary ; and the 
third, instructing the committee to act with the 
committee of the church in such measures as may 
be proper for the ordination of Mr. Hawes, should 
he accept the call. The letter of invitation was 
signed by Isaac Buell, Joseph Steward, Aaron 
Chapin, Josiah Beckwith, Aaron Colton, committee 
of the church ; John Caldwell, Enoch Perkins, Nor- 
mancl Smith, Jonathan Edwards, committee of the 
society. Mr. Wadsworth and Mr. Hudson, of the 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 59 

same committee, being absent, their names are not 
found in the letter. 

This order of procedure preserves the distinc- 
tion between the church and society. It allows to 
each free and appropriate action within its own 
province, and for its peculiar purposes. The church 
is the only purely ecclesiastical body of which the 
New Testament knows any thing. It elects its own 
teachers, and a council of churches inducts them 
into office. It enacts its own rules under the Bibli- 
cal Institutes, and administers its discipline, subject 
to no veto-power or restraint from any other body, 
corporate or non-corporate, outside or inside its 
pale. This right is fundamental in Congregation- 
alism, and is held as a divine law of the church. 

The parish makes no part of the church, and has 
no ecclesiastical function; but because it holds an 
important relation to the church, and co-operates 
with it, it is called an ecclesiastical society. Its 
members may be in part, or even all of them, mem- 
bers of the church ; but this does not alter its 
corporate character: it cannot rightfully assume 
any church function, or interfere with any church 
prerogative. By a law of comity, the two act in 
concert in the choice and support of the gospel 
ministry : but the parish cannot choose or install 
a pastor, nor can it dissolve the pastoral relation; 
though it has sometimes assumed these preroga- 
tivesf It cannot take possession of the church- 
records or of church-property, nor can it vote the 
disposal of it, without usurpation and injustice ; 
though the ecclesiastical history of New England, 



GO LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

during the first quarter of the present century, is 
lull of such injustice. 

The time occupied by the proceedings at Hart- 
ford Air. Hawes spent in Andover. On his return. 

his journal indicates one of the early and excellent 
usages of the Xew-Enodand churches. 

••Feb. 28. — To-day the church have had a last 
in reference to the solemnities of the coming week. 
I have endeavored to humble myself, and have felt 
some meltings of soul in view of my unfruitfulness. 
I found my mind quickened by reading the Life of 
Pre s. Edwards. Oh the devo redness of that man to 
the work of his Master ! I would imitate his self- 
denial, and consecration to God." 

The ordination took place March d. ISIS : seven- 
teen churches being invited on the council. In the 
services. Prof, Fitch of Yale College made the in- 
troductory prayer : Dr. Woods of Andover Semi- 
nary preached the sermon : Dr. Perkins of West 
Hartford offered the ordaining prayer : Mr. Row- 
land of Windsor gave the charge to the pastor: Dr. 
Flint of the South Church. Hartford, the right hand 
of fellowship : while Rev. Mr. Goodrich made the 
c o n c 1 u d in g p r a y e r . 

Mr. Hawes was the tenth of the pastors who had 
been placed over the First Church in Hartford. 
Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone were the first two. 
and. for fourteen years, were co-laborers. Both were 
eminent men : and Hooker was a Xestor among the 
colonial churches, and a counsellor among rulers and 
statesmen. John Whiting and Joseph Ilaynes were 
their successors, who were also co-pastors. Then 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 61 

followed Isaac Foster, Timothy Woodbridge, Daniel 
Wadsworth, Edward Dorr, and Nathaniel Strong. 

This church, though the first in Hartford and in 
the State of Connecticut, was not the first that was 
organized in Hartford. Its organization took place 
at Newtown, now Cambridge, Mass., in 1633. Three 
years later, in the month of June, it emigrated as 
a body, with its two pastors, its ruling elder, and a 
deacon, to the then wilderness-valley of the Con- 
necticut. 

For two hundred and thirty years it never dis- 
missed a minister, and yet was never a day without 
the service of one ; while for thirty years it enjoyed 
that of two pastors. They had all died in office ; 
and the church had borne them all reverently to 
their earthly resting-place under the shadow of its 
sanctuary. 

Mr. Hawes had just been introduced into the work 
and office of the ministry as the tenth in this hon- 
orable apostolic succession. 

" March 8. — My mind was greatly borne down in 
prospect of being set over this great people. I felt 
that nothing but the smiles of my heavenly Father 
could enable me to perform the duties of the place ; 
and I found it pleasant to cast myself upon his guid- 
ance and aid. And this I was enabled to do with 
greater freedom, from a conviction that his provi- 
dence had brought me here. I now feel myself 
solemnly bound, by my ordination-vows, to devote 
my all to the peace and welfare of the souls com- 
mitted to my care. For them I am henceforth to 
study, to preach, and to pray; and, oh! if I may 



62 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

but enjoy the divine presence in this work, it will 
be pleasant to consume my strength in it. 

" Dr. Woods preached the sermon, which, I sup- 
pose, will be published. For that man I have an 
affection truly filial ; and I believe he feels towards 
me as a kind and tender father. Before he left, he 
spent some time in free conversation with me. The 
parting was bitter. Andover, with all its pleasant 
scenes, rose to my remembrance, and quite overcame 
me. We knelt down, and prayed ; the good man 
commending me to the grace of God. May the 
smiles of Heaven rest upon him forever ! " 

Mr. Hawes entered with zeal and decision on his 
work, both as a pastor and a preacher. 

" March 23. — Our State Fast took place last Fri- 
day. I preached from Ps. lxxxix. 15. In the fore- 
noon, the people appeared not much interested. I 
was laying down principles from which to deduce 
practical remarks. In the afternoon, I succeeded in 
gaining their attention. I pressed some points so 
far, that I felt afraid afterwards that I had erred. 
I spoke with some of my people, and was happy to 
find that my fears were groundless. On this point 
I received a very consoling letter from Mr. S. Terry, 
expressing his high satisfaction with my general 
mode of preaching. He appears to love the truth. 
In writing that sermon, I had very little time ; and 
found myself greatly embarrassed by recurring to 
other writers, especially in the forenoon. I wrote 
more easily and more forcibly when I threw myself 
upon my own resources. 

" Eemember this : think for myself. Mr. T 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 63 

has just called on me, and has taken liberty to men- 
tion some things in this sermon which he thought 
exceptionable, particularly that part of it which 
respected the present state of religion in this place. 
Perhaps I said too much on this subject ; but I am 
confident I said much less than I might have said 
with truth. 

" I suppose that I am more in danger of erring on 
the side of plainness than on that of concealment. 
It is natural for me to express my ideas strongly. 
Have an eye over this. 

" After all, I find more and more, every day I live, 
that I must stand on my own feet. I must act de- 
cidedly, and for myself. 

" There are temporizers in every place ; and hasty, 
rash men, too. I must be governed by neither, but 
judge and act for myself. Oh ! it is an evil world, 
where we are constantly jostling against friends or 
enemies." 

In regard to the condition of the church, Mr. 
Hawes says, " Our Jerusalem is all in ruins ; and, to 
rebuild it, I need the wisdom and piety, the forti- 
tude and firmness, of a Nehemiah. When I see how 
much is to be clone here to set things in order, I am 
ready to sink : no church-records ; no documents to 
tell me who are members, and who not • what chil- 
dren have been baptized, and what not; our cove- 
nant and confession of faith contained in just ten 
Arminian lines ; four deacons of the five not mem- 
bers of the church ; many irregular members, some 
timid ones, and, I fear, but few who would favor a 
thorough reformation. Oh, dear ! But, under the 



64 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

guidance and blessing of Providence, I hope to see 
better clays. My purpose is fixed, and it must go. I 
mean to move cautiously, move surely, move firmly; 
and, if I move in reliance on divine help, I hope I 
shall at length reach my object, and see a better 
state of things established here." 

Such a condition of such a church, in the very 
heart of New England, it is difficult for many, 
at the present time, to understand, or even regard 
as credible ; but the half-way covenant, which ad- 
mitted the unregenerate to church-membership, and 
which was, in part, the cause of these irregularities, 
also in part explains them. 

"May 5. — Last Sabbath was the day appointed 
by the legislature for receiving contributions for 
the Missionary Society. I preached on doing good, 
from Heb. xi. 4. The general character of the ser- 
mon I am satisfied with ; but there are faults in it, 
which, I apprehend, exist in some measure in all 
my performances, and which I would here notice, to 
be corrected. There is too much severity in my man- 
ner of rebuking sin. Sometimes sharpness is proper 
and necessary ; but, in a charity-sermon, a milder 
treatment seems preferable. I think, if I were to 
labor for a more conciliatory manner both in writing 
and in speaking, it would be an improvement. 

"I find, every day I live, the need of such 
aid and support as I anticipate from a companion. 
My circumstances do not seem exactly to favor an 
immediate connection; and yet I see. not how they 
will be better by delaying." 



CHAPTER m. 

Letters to Miss Fisher, and Marriage. 

FOR three years, Mr. Hawes had been affianced 
to a young woman of excellent judgment, of re- 
finement and piety. She was the daughter of Wil- 
liam C. and Lois Mason Fisher of Wrentham, Mass. 
Her father was an intelligent farmer, a great reader, 
and a man of considerable town and other public 
business. Her mother was the daughter of Priscilla 
Wheelock Mason, and niece of Pres. Wheelock of 
Dartmouth College, and in direct descent from Capt. 
John Mason, who came from England, 1620, in 
" The May-Flower." She was a woman of strong 
common sense, of great executive energy, and a 
thorough Bible Christian. The daughter, Louisa, 
when quite young, gave to others evidence of the 
new life ; which, however, did not become clear and 
satisfactory to herself till some years later. 

To this young woman Mr. Hawes was drawn more 
and more closely, the more intimately he knew her. 
This acquaintance had been to him an important 
means of social development, and of mental and 
moral culture. It brought him into a school of good 
manners as well as of good morals : some rough things 

65 



66 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

in him were smoothed, and some that were angular 
were rounded off, by such contact with pure womanly 
good sense and refinement. 

A few extracts from Mr. Hawes's letters to Miss 
Fisher will present a new feature in his character, 
and a new point of interest. They were not written 
for the public eye : had they been, they would lack 
all their special interest as a key to the heart-history 
of the writer, and more than half their value. Al- 
though it is a matter of delicacy to lift the veil from 
such communings, yet, when what is disclosed is so 
pure and so honorable to those concerned, the most 
scrupulous can find no objection. 

' " Axdover, Dec. 16, 1814. 

"My dear Louisa, — As the hour is stolen from 
weariness and sleep, you must excuse me if I some- 
times nod. The subject, I confess, requires a bright- 
er hour ; but I am unwilling to let an opportunity 
pass, though what is written may be drowsy. I have 
another motive in writing : I wish to bring you into 
my debt as much as possible ; and, to accomplish this, 
it is only necessary to multiply letters. I wish it to 
be distinctly specified that I shall expect letter for 
letter, with good coin for bad. 

" In this quiet and very pleasant study, where I 
now sit, I have had leisure to review the transactions 
of the past week. I dwell with peculiar delight on 
the happy incidents — -rapid indeed, but not rash — 
which marked our first acquaintance. 

" I am afraid I showed more forwardness to mature 
some parts of the transaction, than you, unacquainted 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 67 

as you were with me, were prepared to approve, and 
more, perhaps, than propriety allowed. Did it not 
resemble too much the precipitancy of romance ? 
Delicacy of feeling requires delicacy of conduct. I 
am afraid, therefore, that you saw something in my 
haste of doubtful aspect. My only excuse for this 
is, I had not time to proceed more deliberately. In 
this world, where all are freebooters, I have been in 
the habit of thinking it unsafe to leave, in a place 
much frequented, an inviting treasure unsecured. 
There is another palliating circumstance : though the 
interview to you was unexpected, to me it was not: 
it was the result of a design, formed long before, with 
much caution, and frequent intercession for divine 
guidance, and to the execution of which I came with 
the confidence of integrity, and purity of motives. 
I proceeded in it with pleasure, because I knew you, 
if not personally, yet much better, probably, than 
you now know me. I acted with much openness and 
freedom, because I never learned to act otherwise. 

" The agreeable impressions I first received w^ere 
heightened by my subsequent acquaintance. I 
found you a stranger : I left you a friend. And now 
permit me to say, I am more than merely your 
friend. You will make me happy indeed by con- 
sidering and using me as such. 

" Respecting myself, I wish to say but little. I had 
rather you would take the book, and study it, than 
attempt to give you an analysis of it. Were I to 
undertake it, I should not probably succeed very 
well : my eyes always fail me before I proceed far 
in its perusal ; and I must confess that many parts 
of it were never very pleasing to me. 



68 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

" Jan. 2, 1815. — I commenced the new year by re- 
viewing the scenes of my past life ; and painful in- 
deed was the task. The retrospect affords me very 
little satisfaction. I feel as though I had never 
served God but in subserviency to my own selfish 
purposes. I have been panting after the fading 
honors of this vain world. Most ardently have I 
reached forward for the laurels which deck the 
scholar's brow. But away with these lures to des- 
truction, vile as the dust on which I tread ! The 
honors of this life I seek no more. I have given 
myself, my all, and my Louisa too, to God. Yes, I 
have just made an unreserved surrender, I hope, of 
our time, our talents, our influence, and our all, to 
his service. We may no longer live for ourselves. 
The time of action is short. The work before us is 
great. How do you progress in Stewart ? What 
other books do you want ? Let me hear from you 
soon ; for my health and my spirits very much need 
your aid. 

"March 4. — My late visit at Wrentham has had 
a very happy influence on my mind : not that it has 
essentially changed those feelings of friendship and 
affection which I before had ; but it has taught me 
that my love (forgive the use of the term) was not 
misplaced, — that it was fixed on one who could 
repay it with similar affection. My happiness, I feel, 
is too intimately allied to yours, my dear Louisa, to 
admit of separation. I wish you ever to feel, that, 
by putting it in my power to make you happy, you 
will always increase my own felicity ; that by allow- 
ing me to participate in your trials and difficulties, 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 69 

as well as in your prosperity, you will gratify my 
desires, and make me truly happy. 

"I have lately purchased Dr. Witherspoon's works, 
two volumes of which I wish you to read when you 
have time, particularly his c Lectures on Divinity, on 
Moral Philosophy, and Rhetoric' I have also 'Watts 
on the Mind,' — an invaluable book. Do you want 
it ? You see I am quite free in cutting out work 
for you. 

" March 23. — My dear Louisa, — Since writing 
the above, I have, to my unspeakable joy, learned 
that my brother Lyman, of whom I spoke to you, 
has, within a few days, entertained a hope of having 
passed that all-important change, without which 
none can see the kingdom of God. I dare not speak 
with confidence about the reality of this change ; 
for I have not seen him to converse with him. On 
his arrival here, I had a conversation with him, and 
have noticed a very unusual seriousness in his de- 
portment. If Lyman be a Christian, he is the third 
God has seen fit to take. Most unpromising and 
miserable creatures, God knows, we were. If we do 
live, it is surelv because he is able to raise the dead. 

" Tell Martha I do not send her my compliments 
for mere fashion's sake, but because I love to ex- 
press what I feel, and because I believe, with the 
good Yicar of Wakefield, that it is necessary to keep 
up some forms of civility in order to keep friendship 
alive. Remember me, therefore, affectionately to 
her. 

" Yery affectionately yours, 

"J. Hawes." 



70 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

" Andoyer* May 1, 1815. 

" One month, Louisa, since you wrote to me. 
My letters, I believe, are too frequent ; and, by your 
silence, you intend to give me a hint to discontinue 
them, or, at least, to write less frequently. 

" My imagination has conjured up a thousand 
causes of your silence. You have practically taught 
me, that to multiply relations in life is to increase 
troubles. Perhaps she is sick; perhaps she is 
wholly occupied in watching over the sick-bed of a 
kind mother, and feels unwilling to acquaint one 
with her troubles whom she knows such information 

would make unhappy ; perhaps she does not 

me, and takes this method to extinguish in 

my breast. But I fear such surmises are unkind : 
I hope they are wholly groundless. 

" July 4. — I rejoice to hear that the returning 
health of our dear mother frees you in some meas- 
ure from the pressure of domestic concerns, from 
which I feared you would experience many ill con- 
sequences. A regard to my own happiness, as well 
as the tender love I have for you, makes me earnest- 
ly desire that you will not allow such concerns to 
infringe too much on your studies. I am afraid of 
the kitchen. That refinement of taste, delicacy of 
feeling, and elegance of manners, which I delight to 
see in others, though I do not possess them myself, 
cannot be acquired but by being conversant with 
elegant authors and people of cultivated minds. 
Allow me to speak freely on this subject. I would 
not have you ignorant of domestic affairs ; nor would 
I have you apply yourself to them very much. I 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 71 

want a companion, not a kitchen-maid ; a beloved 
partner, who can comfort and cheer by the smiles 
of tenderness and love, delight and instruct by her 
conversation, guide and encourage by her advice 
and example. I feel, therefore, all the pleasure you 
have experienced in the thought, that you will, at 
a period not remotely future, be liberated from your 
confinement, and be able to pursue your studies 
without distraction. 

"Thank you for the gentle reproof: my pen 
needs guarding on that subject. I will endeavor to 
correct myself; and, if I am not allowed to commend, 
I may perhaps be permitted, in imitation of your- 
self, to pass over faults. That c repugnance ' of 
which you speak i to point out one solitary error in 
your friend 5 I readily pardon, knowing whence it 
springs; but I fear it. Amor cceeus. 

" I have never thought that home is a convenient 
place for pursuing study. Ten thousand incidental 
circumstances would be breaking in on the retire- 
ment of study, even were you freed from a constant 
oversight of domestic concerns. 

" Do you expect to be at home this winter ? 
That won't do. Let me plan for you once. I wish 
you to be in some situation favorable for study. 
You must indulge me, dear, in striking this string, 
which sounds so grateful to my ear. I wish to have 
you press some subjects much farther than you 
have : I know your own happiness will be much 
promoted by it. Perhaps, too, now is your best 
time : you may not, in future, find so much time as 
I shall for promoting your studies; and then my 



72 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

happiness, I think, would not be diminished at all 
if you knew much more than I do. I do feel in 
earnest on this subject. ' But what shall I study, 
dear sir ? ' I will find you enough, if you will only 
put yourself under my direction. 6 But what shall I 
do for money ? It is not comfortable doing without 
clothes, you know.' I know that ; but knowledge 
is better than money, — at least twenty per cent 
better. And I can borrow money at six per cent : 
so here will be a clear gain of fourteen per cent. 
So much for calculation." 

Mr. Hawes's first acquaintance with Miss Fisher 
was made under the impression that there was no 
doubt as to her Christian character, though he knew 
she was not a member of the church ; and he 
never altogether relinquished this view of her case. 
But, from her self-distrust, it became for some time 
the subject of great solicitude and earnest prayer : 
it was often the topic of their conversation and 
their correspondence. 

"Dec. 22, 1815. — It was with trembling expec- 
tation I broke the seal of that letter for whose 
arrival I had long anxiously waited. With what 
emotions I read its interrupted contents, I cannot 
tell ; and with what feelings I laid it aside, you 
may more easily conceive than I describe. I have 
sought, in my poor way, tranquillity in the retire- 
ment of my closet; and have attempted to give 
up myself, with all my concerns, to the disposal of 
a merciful and holy God. I note, and with thank- 
fulness, the leadings of that kind Providence which 
first made me acquainted with you. 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 73 

" And now, my dear, what can I say to you ? Your 
letter speaks in language which N cannot be misun- 
derstood,— that you need that consolation which the 
affection of a friend would, but cannot, afford. You 
seem to have come to that point where there are no 
alternatives but to submit, or be miserable. It 
would be easy for me to fill my sheet in disclos- 
ing my anxious feelings for you in this situation ; 
but I would endeavor to suppress those emotions 
which you were so unwilling to excite. I might say 
to you the same good things that you have often 
heard ; I might repeat the affecting language of the 
Friend of sinners : but all these topics, full as they 
are of consolation, have been so frequently and in 
such variety of forms presented to you, that I de- 
spair of being able to impart to them any additional 
interest or importance. Driven as I am from these 
fountains of peace, and not allowed to administer 
consolation to my dearest friend by pointing her to 
the mercy-seat, what shall I, what can I, do ? 

" If, in the common concerns of life, we ought to 
exhibit the utmost circumspection and purity, how 
ought we to feel when approaching those who are 
about to decide the momentous question for eter- 
nity ! — whether they will receive Christ, and be 
blessed forever; or reject him, and plunge into 
hopeless misery. On your mind I wish to have 
the impression fixed, that I utterly despair of doing 
you any good, or of giving you the least relief, any 
further than the Divine Spirit may condescend to 
use me as an instrument, and bless my humble 
attempts." . . . 



74 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

" Theological Seminary, March 29, 1816. 
" Whether the phrase, ' Write as easily/ implies 
that you suppose I have much leisure time, or that 
I write with much facility, I know not ; but I can 
assure you that neither the one nor the other is true. 
Ever since I commenced my studies, I have been 
convinced that no situation is so crowded with 
business as that of the scholar. The moment he 
relaxes his efforts, he begins to slide back. In this 
place there is hardly an hour in a week which I 
can call my own, or which does not bring its appro- 
priate duties. As for writing with facility, this 
depends on the subject, and the person to whom I 
write. I had rather, generally, write a dissertation 
on the freedom of the will, than to write a letter 
merely complimentary. I have nothing of that 
charming ease, that flowing, pleasing kind of neg- 
ligence, which one ought to possess in order to 
write letters well. My dislike of letter-writing has 
long since induced me to give up correspondence 
with many persons whom I sincerely respect and 
esteem." 

" Theological Semd*ary, July 1, 1816. 

" The constant tension in which my mind was 
kept yesterday has almost entirely taken from it 
the little elasticity it usually possesses. Poor, 
feeble thing ! A little too close application, even 
to the most pleasant subjects, wearies and exhausts 
it ;' and, to recover its wonted vigor and strength, 
it must be nursed like a sick child. Will it always 
be so ? It is a matter of devout thankfulness that 
God has not made these houses of clay the last- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 75 

ing tenements of onr minds ; that he has fixed a 
period to these days and nights of perplexity, and 
destined the souls he loves to complete emancipation 
from the frailties of flesh, and to a perpetual advance- 
ment in knowledge and in happiness. The light 
of that bright throne, before which the redeemed 
forever bow, will pour more knowledge into the 
soul in a moment, than, in this darkling state, can be 
acquired in an age. Then our minds will never be 
weary, our happiness will never cease. Oh for an 
inheritance among that holy throng ! Oh for some 
humble place near the Redeemer, to behold his 
beauty and glory, and to praise him without ceas- 
ing ! 

" With much pleasure did my eye fasten on the 
assurance, that 'your studies have usurped the 
needle's place.' It is because I would have you in 
good company, and near to the sources of the purest 
enjoyment this world affords, that I am so constantly 
crowding your room with books, and urging you to 
pluck the flowers of Parnassus, and drink of the 
Pierian spring. Were I to quit my study for the 
plough, would you not complain ? Why, then, may 
I not entreat when you desert your study for the 
needle ? The cases are by no means ^very different. 

" One word respecting Karnes, and I have done on 
the subject of study till my next. The first volume 
I deem much the most important : it contains prin- 
ciples. The second, though useful, needs not so 
much attention to understand it, and, to one who 
has read Blair, is not so important. The first, though 
in some respects a hard nut, is full of meat. But 
read Wardlaw soon, if you can." 



76 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

" Theological Seminary, July 15, 1816. 

"What I intimated to you in my last respect- 
ing the prospects of Miss has now become 

fact ; and, once more in her solitary bark, she is set 
afloat upon the tide of life, exposed to other pirates, 
who, if found under black colors, will plunder her 
of the little she has had left her by marauders of 
that stamp. You may think this severe; and, in- 
deed, it is more so than I intended when I began 
the sentence, especially as I am one of the impli- 
cated class. But I tell you, beware of the hooded 
fraternity : they are strongly prone to slip their ca- 
bles, and have wonderful dexterity in doing so, and, 
leaving prizes already captured to shift for them- 
selves, to go in pursuit of others they may fancy 
more valuable. But to drop this figure : know 
then, for a certainty, that the non-intercourse bill 
passed the upper house last Saturday, and, before 
this, has probably received the necessary, and per- 
haps willing, assent of the lower house. Before its 
transmission, it was submitted to me, the prime min- 
ister in this affair ; and, considering circumstances, I 
thought it best to give it my signature, especially as 
I foresaw that intercourse, if continued, must be 
kept up, not through the warm and fluent channels 
of affection, but over the ice of indifference, or 
through the snow-banks of disaffection." 

"Theological Seminary, Aug. 20, 1816. 

. . . ." I wish, my dear, you would turn your at- 
tention, as you have opportunity, to the subject of 
public speaking. Not that I wish you to turn 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 77 

preacher ; but I do wish you to become so much of 
a critic as to be able to correct faults in your friend. 
For every minister is constantly liable to contract 
bad habits in speaking ; and unless some faithful 
friend watches him, and kindly tells him of his 
faults, his usefulness will be greatly diminished. 
And who will be more faithful in this respect, and 
who should be better able to correct errors of this 
kind, than an affectionate companion ? Don't, now, 
put this request by, from a too common distrust of 
your ability in this thing. You may do me much 
good in telling me of odd gestures and motions, of 
improper tones and emphasis, &c. ; and this motive, I 
know, will be sufficient to engage you to notice 
public speakers, with this object in view, and also 
to treasure up thoughts which may from time to 
time occur in your reading." . 

"Theological Seminary, Oct. 13, 1816. 

"I have this day been reviewing the events of 
my past life, particularly of the past year. It 
would be impossible, on one sheet, to tell you how 
many faults I have found. ... Of nineteen years 
of my life I can give no account which does not 
fill me with anguish. They have gone forever, 
and with them the best season this life affords for 
cultivating the intellectual and moral powers. A 
soil long neglected, and pre-occupied by poison- 
ous weeds, seems to resist every effort to improve 
it. 

" I find cleaving to me many bad habits both of 
study and of feeling ; and I sometimes fear, that, in 



78 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

spite of every exertion to remove them, they will 
cleave to me through life, and, if not rectified 
by graces will come forth with me in the great 
day. 

" Every hour since I commenced study has come 
loaded with mercies. Health, the choicest of earth- 
ly blessings, has hardly been interrupted. Destitute 
of the means of support, my every want has been 
supplied. At first, very few friends : now surround- 
ed by many, whose kindness and attention give me 
the sweetest enjoyment. Originally rough and un- 
polished as the stone newly cut from the quarry, ig- 
norant of every thing, — and, many prophesied, igno- 
rant and uncouth must always be, — I now find my- 
self esteemed and respected. Indeed, my dear, I am 
a wonder to myself, and, I believe, to many others 
who knew me in the perverse days of my childhood 
and youth. A more unpromising subject never 
was. 

" Though I have never had any capital at my com- 
mand, yet I have never wanted any good thing. I 
have been fed and clothed by an invisible hand, and 
my every want has been mercifully supplied. In 
every time of need, I am permitted to draw on my 
kind anc] benevolent Master ; and though he knows 
I am infinitely indebted to him, and have nothing 
to pay, yet my humble application always receives 
his compassionate regard. Indeed, I have long 
been in the habit of considering my poverty a very 
great blessing. If, in some respects, it has subjected 
me to inconveniences, and removed from me some 
of the good things of life, yet, to make amends for 



LIFE OF DR. EAWES. 79 

this, it has stinted many poisonous weeds, which 
would otherwise have sprung up, and choked every 
plant of i celestial growth.' Who can tell what ef- 
fect wealth might have produced on such a creature 
as I am ? . . . Thus have I been borne onward to 
the present day : every step has opened brighter 
prospects ; and, through Divine Goodness, I hope yet 
to be prospered. And the thought that my beloved 
companion will share with me in the smiles, in the 
beneficence and mercy, of my heavenly Father, 
makes peculiarly grateful every anticipation of fu- 
ture good. 

"In a late conversation with you, if I mistake 
not, we both thought it was proper for the most in- 
timate friends to keep a box of secrets. I confess 
I don't now very much like the sentiment. Per- 
haps, as in many other cases, it is unpleasant, be- 
cause I find myself unable to practise upon it. I 
feel no disposition to keep any thing from you. 
Since you have gotten my heart, I am quite willing 
you should know all about it ; and, since you are 
likely to be as much concerned with the bad as the 
good parts of it, I am also willing you should know 
these too. Perhaps, in making a full disclosure, I 
run some risk ; but I had rather you should know 
me now than when it is too late to repent. I must 
repeat it : I do not like the thought of our being 
two in any respect in which we can be one. If I 
have not access to all you possess, how can I know 
how much you keep back? and what confidence 
can you put in me, when you know I have a secret 
chamber to which you are never admitted ? From 



80 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

that sentiment; therefore, I must declare my dis- 
sent. You kindly ask, or rather intimate it would 
give you pleasure, to know something of my expe- 
rience. I have never said much to any one on this 
subject ; nor, indeed, have I ever had much to say. 
I am but a child in Christian experience. . . . 

" We need not any more, I presume, remind each 
other of the time of writing. If my love knew 
how pleasant it is to her friend to hear from her, 
she would sometimes, as I have often done, antici- 
pate the time of writing." 

"Theological Seminary, Feb. 24, 1817. 

..." When I think of the effect study has on 
my own mind, I can hardly wish you to pursue it. 
The first great evil I experience from it is neglect 
of my heart. I love my studies ; and often, ere I 
am aware, I find myself wandering away from God, 
and living as though this were my final home, and 
knowledge my ultimate good. Over no part of my 
conduct do I find more occasion to mourn and weep 
than over my propensity to prefer knowledge to 
holiness. Sometimes, when I have a rational view 
of things, and taste the pure and tranquil joys of 
communion with God, I am astonished at my folly, 
and think I never can lose the sweet savor of heav^ 
enly things ; but there is no trusting to a deceitful 
heart. I do not know but that I must quarrel with 
my books, or give up my religion. You maybe sur- 
prised, and so am I, when I tell you, that, the more 
I study, the more uncertain I feel on many sub- 
jects : indeed, there are hardly any points on which 



LIFE OF DR. II AWES. 81 

I feel so much confidence now as I did four years 
ago. 

"I have found myself wrong so often, that I 
sometimes fear I have nothing right • and I have 
been obliged to pull up stakes so frequently, that I 
am almost afraid to put them clown anywhere. . . . 
Now, do you not fear I shall become a sceptic ? I 
confess I sometimes am afraid of it \ but I feel con- 
siderable assurance that I have two or three an- 
chors which will keep my little ship from being 
driven over the dark ocean of scepticism. Nothing 
will settle a wavering mind like a humble spirit, — a 
spirit which delights to sit at the feet of Jesus, and 
learn of him ; and, if I had more of this, I should be 
much less perplexed in my investigations." 

"Theological Seminary, July 22, 1817. 

. . . " You ask, 'If I did really love God as I love 
you, should I not have equal evidence of it V Now, 
dear, if you were asked what evidence you have of 
loving me, what would you say ? Would you look 
around you for evidence ? or would you look into 
yourself? Would you seek for signs, or for the 
thing signified ? To others, you must, indeed, give 
marks or signs of affection ; but what evidence have 
you ? Must you not look at the affection itself, and 
not to any evidence of affection ? The only evi- 
dence of love is love. You seem to me to be look- 
ing after evidence of love to God when you ought 
to look for love itself. Is it your desire to promote 
the cause of the Redeemer ? Do you love the 
cause of Christ ? Do you love his friends and his 



82 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

service ? Is it your happiness to be in the hands of 
God, and at his disposal ? Finally, is it your deter- 
mination to do whatever appears to be duty, how- 
ever painful and self-denying it may be ? An an- 
swer to these questions will remove your doubts." 

" Hartford, March 5, 1818. 

" I feel so exhausted, my dear, by the services of 
my ordination, that I can apply myself with no 
success to the multiplicity of duties which now press 
me down. I shall therefore send you a few lines ; 
and you must be satisfied, and attribute it to the 
proper cause, if they are but few and uninteresting. 
I found, on my return, every thing as pleasant as I 
could expect. The people show me much more 
kindness than I deserve. . . . Yesterday was the 
most solemn day that ever passed over my head ; 
though my previous excitement had been so great, 
that I felt less deeply during my ordination than 
otherwise I should have done. 

"I once more call your attention to a subject 
which lies very near my heart. I do believe, that, 
notwithstanding my affection for you, I can look at 
this subject with the eye of reason. I feel lone- 
some. I have, it is true, many kind friends here, 
but none that can supply your place. I want some 
one to whom I can unbosom my whole heart, and 
who will feel an interest in all my concerns, and 
afford me kind assistance in my work. . . . Our 
circumstances will not allow us to commence house- 
keeping immediately ; nor should I wish it if they 
did. ... I suppose I know your feelings on this 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 83 

point : at any rate, I have a right to presume that 
you are willing to have our connection consum- 
mated at any proper time ; and, in my opinion, a 
proper time will be as soon as I can find some 
suitable place to board, and can leave my people to 
pay you a visit." 

"Hartford, June 4, 1818. 

" I am much obliged to you, my dear, for your 
kind endeavors to meet my wishes. I hope you 
will not find yourself much incommoded by my 
plans : if you should, place it to my account ; and I 
will attempt, at some future time, to make full remu- 
neration. . . . You seem not to have read the time 
right in my former letter. You say you shall 
expect me next week. I said I should leave this 
place a week from Monday next, and hope to see 
you the Tuesday following : . and, you being willing, I 
hope, on Wednesday, to call you mine in a peculiar 
sense ; then leave W., and return that way on 
our journey to H. This is my plan. Do what you 
can to fall in with it ; and you will much oblige one 
who has given you all he has, and therefore can 
make you no further amends for the favor he now 
asks, — the last, I hope, till you see me. 
" More than ever yours, 

"J. Hawes." 

In accordance with this plan, Mr. Hawes left Hart- 
ford on Monday, the 15th of June, 1818 ; and was 
married at Wrentham on the 17th. After a brief 
absence on a pleasant journey with his bride to visit 
a few friends, he returned to Hartford, full of grati- 



84 LIFE OF DR HAWES. 

tude to God, and new devotion to his work. He 
had now reached the two points of his pure and 
laudable ambition, — he had become the pastor of 
one of the most important churches of New 
England, and the husband of one of New England's 
most sensible, intelligent, and cultivated daughters. 
He is now settled in life and for life. He has a 
business, and a most worthy helper in it. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Criticisms upon Himself, upon his Alma Mater, and upon Ministers. 

MANY things occur in the history of a young 
student, which, as illustrating his youth and 
immaturity, his experiments and mistakes, have a 
peculiar interest and significance. They are way- 
marks, raised on the road over which he passed, 
denoting the up and the down hills in his advance- 
ment. To view these as ultimate results would be a 
misjudgment and a wrong ; but, regarded as the ten- 
tative efforts of an earnest nature, — now despond- 
ingly creeping towards the high and the true, and 
then, with undue self-confidence, rushing after them; 
sometimes from over-scrupulousness wronging him- 
self, and sometimes, from the impulses of a strong, 
bold nature, misjudging others, — these things are 
steps in one's progress, and keys to character, 
that lay open the processes of its formation and 
the means of self-culture. Of this nature are 
certain criticisms and judgments which Mr. Hawes, 
in this early period, passed on himself, on his Alma 
Mater, and on a few prominent ministers that came 
under his observation. 

From the commencement of the Christian life, 

85 



86 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

he began the habit of careful introspection and self- 
examination. He studied human nature; but he 
made himself his chief text-book : and he knew 
and judged others better for having first scrutinized 
and judged himself. He grappled more successfully 
with every remoter problem for these efforts at 
solving the one nearest him. This introspective 
habit saved him from much wasted effort upon 
what is visionary and fanciful, or what lies beyond 
the limits of the human understanding, and at the 
same time stimulated him to more solid seeking of 
what lies within those limits. 

When about entering the seminary at Andover, 
he says, " I feel more sensibly, as I advance, the 
absolute necessity of assiduous exertions to correct 
my habits of study. Let this be kept constantly 
in view ; and never cease to believe that old habits 
may be overcome, and new ones formed, by unre- 
mitted perseverance. 

"In my pursuit of knowledge, let these things be 
strictly observed : — 

" 1. Never be contented with my present acquisi- 
tion. 

" 2. Believe that I can know all which is to be 
known. 

"3. Resolve never to avoid, but rather run after, 
difficulties. 

" 4. Never quit a subject till I understand it. 

" 5. Always feel my dependence on Gocl for 
knowledge as well as grace. 

"June 14, 1814. — My time, in future, must be 
more diligently employed. In company, particu- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 87 

larly in my intercourse with my brethren, let some 
useful topic of conversation be started ; and always 
endeavor to acquire clear ideas of every subject of 
investigation ; have confidence in my own under- 
standing ; and never be contented to stop as long as 
there is any thing further to be known. The man- 
ner of study should be uniform : fly not from subject 
to subject; read comparatively little ; reflect much, 
and write much. -The only way to infuse vigor into 
the mind, and give it a confidence in its own powers, 
is to employ it in original investigation. Good eyes, 
though a great blessing, have destroyed many a fine 
intellect. Reading without reflection makes a learned 
fool." 

Later, he adopted the following specific rules : — 

" 1. Rise at four o'clock, and spend the two hours 
before breakfast in my closet and study. 2. After 
breakfast, exercise vigorously an hour ; then apply 
myself to study till twelve o'clock ; exercise till din- 
ner ; then study something light. After recitation, 
act according to my feelings. Visit two evenings in 
a week, and endeavor to be useful. Such relaxation 
I much need to invigorate for study, to prevent de- 
pression of spirits,— to which I find myself inclined, 
— and to cultivate those social feelings so necessary 
to my own comfort, and the enjoyment of those with 
whom I may be conversant." 

In order to secure himself from interruption, he 
placed this motto over the door, " Time is the only 
thing of which it is a virtue to be covetous;" and 
under it his hours of study. 

" In regard to my deportment among my breth- 



88 LIFE OF DR. II AWES. 

ren the ensuing year, I must endeavor to be more 
circumspect and exemplary. I must respect myself, 
and neither in my conduct nor conversation indulge 
any thing inconsistent with the dignity of that sacred 
office upon which I am shortly to enter. Whilst I 
would scrupulously guard against a measured stiff- 
ness in my manners, and avoid every thing like 
affectation, I am desirous to manifest that manli- 
ness of carriage, that dignity and circumspection of 
deportment, which are necessary to secure the es- 
teem and respect of others, and to extend the circle 
of my influence. 

" In the whole of my intercourse with my breth- 
ren and others, I would show a kind, affectionate, 
gentle, and condescending temper, and avoid every 
thing like forwardness, every thing indicative of dis- 
regard to their feelings, or which savors of self- 
importance. 

"I feel that I have the more need to be attentive 
to some points of etiquette, because of past neglect, 
and because I am naturally inclined to a kind of ab- 
ruptness in my manners, — an undisguised expres- 
sion of opinion and feeling, arising, I presume, from 
a presumption that what is well intended must be 
well received, — not making sufficient allowance in 
cases where this trait of my character is unknown. 

" In disputation, I sometimes find myself inclined 
to excessive warmth. I wish to rectify this pro- 
pensity, and always to be patient of contradiction ; 
and, in conversation generally, I need to be more 
careful in the choice of words and the manner of 
expressing my thoughts, and to avoid using that 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 89 

strong, figurative language, to which, I am told, I 
am much addicted. In short, in intercourse with my 
brethren, I wish to converse and act under the influ- 
ence of the meek and humble spirit of the gospel." 

Mr. Hawes began early to cultivate the habit of 
neatness in his manuscripts as well as his style. A 
blot upon them troubled him more than a blunder 
in history, or even in theology, does some men. 

" I love a neat sermon too well," he said. " Time 
is precious ; and I must not spend much of it in mere 
polishing." Yet he would often copy a whole sheet 
in consequence of some error or fault which could 
be corrected by interlineation. 

With but little teaching in respect to elocution or 
pulpit manners, Mr. Hawes dealt very severely with 
himself. 

" My speaking, I have reason to believe, is very 
faulty. A too precipitate utterance is the source of 
most of my faults. Impressed with the very great 
importance of a forcible, persuasive mode of deliver- 
ing my sermons, I determine to pay particular 
attention to this subject, and use every means in 
my power to rectify my faults. 

" I suspect my style is a little too diffuse ; or, 
rather, is too much crowded with epithets. I am 
apt to dwell upon a thought longer than is necessary 
to answer the purpose I have in view. This fault I 
must rectify, and endeavor to compose in shorter 
sentences. 

"I fear my delivery is such as to diminish the 
weight of my sentiments very much. This must not 
be. I would not have the sword of the Spirit ren- 



90 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

dered inefficacious by my unskilfulness in using it. 
I need to exhibit greater self-possession; and, in or- 
der to exhibit it, I must possess it. This is at the 
root of my faults in speaking. There is a want of 
firmness and steadiness in my general appearance in 
the desk, a too frequent darting of my eye from my 
notes to my hearers. This must be remedied by 
committing my notes more to memory; and this 
would give me opportunity to correct my gestures. 
I need, also, the art of emphasizing better. This 
must be obtained by reading and speaking some ani- 
mated pieces of dense, nervous composition. I ought 
to pause longer between my sentences, and espe- 
cially between my paragraphs. The subject is so 
important, that I must devote some time to it. I 
hope I shall be able, with proper attention, to cor- 
rect my speaking, so that it shall not diminish the 
proper effect of divine truth." 

But Mr. Hawes encountered other more serious 
difficulties than were found in physical or mental 
habits. These were the spiritual struggles that he 
passed through, — the battles that he fought with 
the Apollyons of ambition, pride, and carnal affec- 
tions. Varnhagen said of Humboldt's inconsistencies 
in a certain matter, " If he could only cut himself 
in two, he certainly would put one-half in prison ; " 
but Dr. Hawes, in his severe self-judgments, sen- 
tenced to imprisonment the whole of himself. 

"Miserable sinner that I am!" he exclaims. "I 
seldom raise my grovelling soul above the dust it 
loves. Charmed with tinsel, I despise gold ; en- 
chained to earth, I love my chains ; sensible of my 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 91 

poverty, my dull soul will go not an inch after dura- 
ble riches ; convinced of my duty to be entirely 
Christ's, — to devote my time, my talents, my health, 
my life, and my all, to him, — I am obliged to carry on 
a miserable quarrel with conscience and with reason, 
which unite in lifting their voice against my sloth, 
and in chastising me for seeking the living among 
the dead. 

" Do I not know whence this wretchedness, this 
painful strife ? Do I not know that the path of 
wanderers from God is planted with thorns ? Does 
he ever feed those with spiritual food who love this 
fading world ? Yes, all this I know ; but knowing 
it' does not effect any change. God! I despair 
forever of being conformed to thee, unless thou 
takest the work into thine own hands. I would 
cast myself upon thy grace. I do not ask earthly 
good ; I do not ask for deliverance from punishment 
simply : but I do desire to be delivered from this 
cold, lifeless heart ; I do ask for strength to take hold 
of thine arm, and to lean constantly upon thee. Oh ! 
grant me holiness of heart, and I desire no greater 
good. A perverse hankering after human applause 
gives me much uneasiness ; and I know not that I 
can say that this wicked propensity is not as strong 
as formerly. Its intrusion into almost every ques- 
tion of duty gives me painful evidence that it has 
deep root in a corrupt heart. I often feel ashamed 
and indignant at this love of human distinction. 
I regard it as contemptible, as .well as sinful, — as 
wholly unworthy a rational being. Oh for greater 
simplicity of purpose, for more devotedness to the 
glory of God ! 



92 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

" I tremble when I think of standing in the sacred 
desk. In a new place, and among strangers, I often 
find myself so straitened and discomposed, that I 
can hardly say any thing to God, or for the benefit 
of my fellow- worshippers ; and, in general, I must say 
I find much less freedom and enlargement of mind, 
much less delight and fervor of soul, in my public 
than in my private exercises. In my closet, I some- 
times find, and especially of late, much pleasure 
and satisfaction : my thoughts dwell with delight 
on the divine perfections ; and my soul is sweetly 
drawn out after holiness, after a greater resemblance 
to my Redeemer. Unless I am deceived in my most 
prominent and ardent affections, I do know I love 
holiness ; that I desire nothing so much as deliver- 
ance from sin, and entire conformity to God. 

u I have sometimes been almost overwhelmed with 
the thought, that Jehovah, so exalted, so pure, and 
so holy, should permit such a poor, miserable, insig- 
nificant sinner as I am to approach him in prayer. 
I have sometimes felt as though it were impossible 
that the infinite God should hearken to the cries of 
one so unworthy and so sinful. Then I think of 
Christ, and in him find all I need, all I can desire." 

In connection with this close self-criticism, and as 
a part of the moral culture of the student, there 
was a delicacy of conscience, a nice sensibility to 
even the appearance of what might' abate from his 
Christian influence, which was a crowning quality, 
and gave a completeness to his preparation for the 
ministry. In reference to the making up of some 
shirts, when ruffles were " all the fashion," he writes 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 93 

to a friend; " Perhaps you had better oinit the 
ruffle : it may spoil a good sermon in the view of 
some serious people. I will never eat meat if it 
make my brother to offend." 

During one of his seminary vacations; and before 
he was licensed; he preached four times. On his 
return; he writes in his journal; — 

" There was something so irregular in this ? that 
I cannot review it with much satisfaction. I de- 
clined the first invitation ; but was finally induced 
to comply by the advice of Dr. Emmons, to whom 
the matter was referred. Though I have not dis- 
obeyed the spirit of our laws respecting students 
preaching; yet I am satisfied I should fall if tried by 
the strictness of the letter." 

The religious condition of all the New-Enoiand 
colleges, at the close of the last century and the 
opening of the present; was dark and deplorable. 
There was only a single professedly Christian stu- 
dent in Harvard in 1798 ; — Mr. John Church; — and 
only five or six at Yale. When Dr. D wight accepted 
the presidency of that college; most of the students 
were boasting infidels of the Paine and Jefferson 
school. 

The condition of Brown University; a few years 
later, led to the following adverse comments in Mr. 
Hawes's memoranda : " The system of studies pur- 
sued in this college is every way fitted to make 
superficial scholars. The almost total neglect of 
mathematics and philosophical science is truly 
lamentable. 

" I entered college ignorant of every thing ; with- 



94 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

out any correct habits of study ; without any knowl- 
edge of the proper end of juvenile education. Ig- 
norant what method to pursue in order to lay a 
solid foundation for acquiring science, and incapable 
of selecting books worthy of an attentive perusal, I 
measured my knowledge by the number of volumes 
I turned over. Alas ! these mistakes were cor- 
rected only by sad experiment. At the end of the 
second year, I had just learned that my time had 
been nearly lost. No directions how to study, what 
to study, and when to study, were ever given 
during my four-years' residence in college ; no 
addresses from the dignified chair of the presidency 
on morals, manners, character, study, — on the in- 
finite importance of forming correct moral and intel- 
lectual habits. On these momentous subjects the 
inexperienced pupil was left to shift for himself. At 
the close of each term, in an address, — the pathetic 
part of which would be on fastening a label to the 
key of our respective rooms, — a minute, or at most 
two, would be spent in informing the student, 6 Life 
is short, and death is certain : therefore be prepared 
constantly to die.' This is good ; but when reiterated 
in the same strain and on the same occasions, time 
after time, it becomes stale." 

Such were the strictures of Senior Hawes on his 
Alma Mater. Whatever measure of justice or in- 
justice there may be in them, the present condition 
of that honorable university places her in a noble 
contrast with her former state. The moral con- 
dition of the college at that period is accounted for, 
in part at least, by the veiled Unitarianism of Dr. 



LIFE OF DR. II A WES. 95 

Messer, the president. He could not teach the vital 
principles of the gospel if he did not believe them ; 
and, with a decline in the evangelical doctrines, 
usually comes a slide in practical morality. Possibly 
he had some hope that Brown University, by skilful 
management, might be carried over to the new faith, 
as Harvard had just been. 

As Mr. Hawes's life-work was to be the Christian 
ministry, he early became a close observer of minis- 
ters. Some of those whom he studied most care- 
fully were the strong men of the New-England 
pulpit, and among the most distinguished of her 
divines. 

In the winter of 1812, he had the opportunity 
of listening to Rev. Mr. Holly and Dr. Griffin of 
Boston at an ordination and dedication in Wey- 
mouth. Of the former he wrote, — 

" Nature has lavished her choicest gifts on this 
man. His personal accomplishments are engaging ; 
his voice melodious ; his method clear and judi- 
cious ; his style perspicuous and manly ; his figures 
frequent, and unusually chaste and striking ; his 
reasoning lucid, and, I think, conclusive ; his ges- 
tures easy and expressive. In fact, he possesses 
the qualifications requisite for an orator to a degree 
I have not witnessed in any other man. 

" Edward D. Griffin, D.D., preached the ordination- 
sermon. My opinion of this man was very much 
raised by his celebrity; but from the trembling 
height of expectancy did his performance clash me. 
In ease, affability, and unaffectedness of manner, he 



96 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

certainly fell far below Mr. Holly; nor was there any 
thing profound or striking in his discourse. His re- 
marks were undoubtedly just, but only such as any 
other good man might have uttered. His directions 
for the proper discharge of the ministerial duties 
were pertinent, and showed the solemnity of under- 
taking the care of souls. One figure which he used 
peculiarly affected me, and reminded me of the 
necessity of using much caution in handling figures. 
Speaking of the difficulties attending the ministry, 
he claimed that they are sufficient to make an angel's 
shoulders tremble. Now, if the difficulties of the 
ministry consisted in carrying beams or any enor- 
mous load on the shoulders, this expression might 
have been proper. The labor of the ministry would 
no more oppress the shoulders of a man than those 
of an angel ; for it has nothing to do with the 
shoulders of either, but with the mind alone. 

" I have enjoyed an interview with Dr. Emmons. 
Eeyond any man with whom I ever conversed does 
he rise in agreeableness, and in communicating in- 
formation. His knowledge is not merely notions, 
or picked up from what other persons have said and 
written. He has thought closely on every subject : 
I say, every subject ; for I think it is difficult to men- 
tion a subject, philosophical, theological, moral, or 
political, upon which he could not discourse with 
such ease and correctness as would induce one to 
think he had just been reflecting on that very subject. 
If labor and close thinking: be^et such clearness 
in the head, it is not difficult to account for the 
darkness and obscurity which envelops the dis- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 97 

course of many persons. They read much, think 
little, and are satisfied with mere notions. 

" Dr. Spring I find to be an interesting man. He 
possesses a large share of good humor, and has the 
faculty of making those quite easy and happy with 
whom he is conversant. I suspect the youthful 
vigor of his mind is in some degree nipped by the 
frost of age. He does not enter with so much in- 
terest and ability into a discussion of theological 
subjects as I expected. If I mistake not, his mind 
has been a little contracted by the rigidity of or- 
thodoxy, — by a kind of exclusive love for the high 
points of Hopkinsianism. I am not disposed by any 
means to undervalue orthodoxy. I consider it of 
great importance to hold up with clearness the whole 
truth of God ; but I think that some have at least 
marred the beautiful symmetry and exact proportion 
of the gospel scheme by swelling to an undue im- 
portance certain nice points of speculation. I blame 
them, not for holding such points, not for preaching 
them, but for making them the bones and sinews of 
Christian theology ; for making them the standard 
of truth and piety, and for excommunicating all 
as heretics who cannot pronounce, without lisping, 
every shibboleth of their system. Dr. Spring's inter- 
course with men of sense and learning has rendered 
him less exclusive in his attachment to the knots 
of orthodoxy than many others with whom he- 
agrees in sentiment. / Nothing is more happily cal- 
culated to do away the narrow prejudices of party, 
and to give enlarged and liberal views of things, 
than intercourse with those who differ from us in 



98 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

sentiment, and an extensive acquaintance with men 
and things ; and it is a question, whether the cause 
of truth is best promoted by frowning upon those 
who are out of the way, instead of taking them by 
the hand, and kindly endeavoring to lead them into 
the strait path. Unkind or unsocial treatment is 
not a very forcible argument. I will go with others 
as far as they will go with me ; and, among those 
who are at the greatest distance from each other, 
the points of agreement will always be found much 
more numerous than the points of disagreement. 

"I have seldom seen a man with whom I was 
more pleased than with Dr. Richards. He is a very 
pious, godly man, — uniform in his character, kind 
and affectionate in his family, familiar and tender in 
his intercourse with his people, open and affable to 
those who at any time enter his peaceful dwelling. 
Let him be my minister and my pattern, rather 
than the other doctor with all his fame for eloquence 
and talents. 

" April 21. — Mr. S. P. Williams preached for me 
half of the clay. Want of pungency is the great 
fault of his preaching. His style would be thought 
elegant ; but it is a style which I have no desire 
to obtain : it wants that simplicity and plainness 
which are necessary to render preaching forcible 
and useful to all classes of men." 

These strictures, whether just or not, are dis- 
criminating, and proceed evidently from a mind 
awake to every thing that relates to the work of 
preaching the gospel. They evince a quick sen- 
sibility to the lights and shades of ministerial char- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 99 

acter and culture : they show a disposition also to 
glean, from the vintage of others, grapes for his own 
wine-presses. If the young student seems bold 
beyond what was wise, and more severe than 
was quite charitable, there is this apology for him, 
that these were judgments before experience, and 
steps towards a higher culture and a broader and 
more judicious criticism. 

Such were the elements of character with which 
Mr. Hawes came to his work as a minister in Hart- 
ford. What prophecy, and promise of usefulness, 
were contained in them, it was not difficult to 
discern. If the church over which he was placed 
was the first in Hartford, and, in wealth and intel- 
ligence, one of the first in New England, it had now 
for its pastor one of New England's strongest, and, 
intellectually and morally, most commanding young 
men ; and he was fully appreciated. 

After he had been a few months engaged in 
his work, Dr. Woods of Andover inquired of a 
parishioner how the people liked him. " Very 
much, very much indeed ; but some of the ladies 
think him not quite careful enough where he spits." 
— " Tell the good ladies," said the doctor, " that 
they can afford to let Joel Hawes spit where he has 
a mind to ; " though no man was more careful in such 
matters than he who thus expressed this warm com- 
mendation of his pupil. 



CHAPTER V. 

Early Pastoral Labors. — Eules for Study. — First Child. 

THE first five years of a young man's ministry 
usually determine its character. If he neither 
breaks down in it from over-exertions, nor falls out 
of it from incapacity, indiscretions, or indolence, 
he may be regarded as successfully established. 
His want of experience comes just where he has the 
greatest need of its advantages, — at the beginning. 
The material which he has to mould is often crude, 
and sometimes essentially antagonistic. Some of 
the flock may be more inclined to lead the shep- 
herd than to be led by him. Some pastors, too, 
mistake themselves for lord bishops, and count 
their office to • be above the church, rather than 
a work of winning men to Christ, and teaching 
them in it. 

It was the aim of Mr. Hawes to reprove and 
rebuke, not by dictation, but by instruction and ex- 
ample ; to rule, not by priestly authority, but by 
the superiority of intelligence and the sovereignty 
of truth ; to make his ministry a magnetism of self- 
sacrificing love and of gospel-truth. 

He soon found, however, what every earnest and 
100 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 101 

wise pastor finds, in the economy of time and labor, 
the necessity of order, of system. Among the ear- 
lier entries in his journal, after his ordination, are 
the following principles and rules : — 

" I. I have spent more time in bed than is neces- 
sary. Seven hours in twenty-four, I know, are suf- 
ficient. Let me, then, restrict myself to this num- 
ber ; .and when by indolence, or love of ease, I in- 
dulge beyond this, deduct enough from the next 
night to make up the loss. 

"II. My Monday mornings must be looked to. 
After an effort, I am apt to relax too far. Some 
business of easy performance must be allotted to 
that time which now I am very apt to lose. My 
exercise must be regularly and vigorously attended 
to, and every measure taken to preserve health. 

" III. More time must be employed in devotional 
exercises, — in prayer, meditation, reading the Scrip- 
tures and other books of piety. 

" In these seasons, I will labor to impress my mind 
with a lively sense of divine things, — the greatness 
of my work, my final account at the judgment-day, 
my great need of divine guidance, and the willing- 
ness of God to bestow the favors which I need. 

" Neglect of serious self-examination, and of deep, 
devout meditation, has exceedingly injured me. 

" IV. I must be careful to improve the fragments 
of "time ; in company, must labor to do and get 
good. In my intercourse with my companion, I will 
strive to be useful, permitting no time to pass un- 
improved ; in my walks, have something useful to 
occupy my thoughts ; and let my diversions, so far 



102 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

as possible, be made directly subservient to my 
growth in goodness and usefulness ; always be in 
my work, and show by my diligence that I have no 
object but to promote the happiness of my people ; 
be sparing in eating ; and, however great the task 
or self-denial, pursue that course which I think 
will be most conducive to my present and future 
good. 

" V. Be more stable in purpose. Never trifle 
with a book with which I have no concern. Let 
not my reading be so miscellaneous as it has been. 
For steady reading, take, for the present, Smith's 
' Theory of Moral Science ; ' for devotion, ' Edwards 
on the Affections.' Eead carefully, and not to while 
away time ; and may God bless me in my efforts to 
grow in knowledge ! " 

In the midsummer following his ordination, Mr.' 
Hawes went to New Haven to attend a meeting of 
the Connecticut Missionary Society. This was the 
beginning of his connection with that institution, 
which had his hearty co-operation for almost half a 
century. " Such a society," he said, " is a kind of 
insurance-company ; and the stronger churches, by 
continuing to support the feebler ones, hold a pledge 
of assistance in their turn, if they should need it." 
At this time, also, he made his first appearance as a 
preacher in the chapel of Yale College. 

The heat of summer, and the anxious labors of 
these first months of pastoral life, made some serious 
inroads upon his health, and caused a little despond- 
ency. " Lately," he says, '" I have been greatly 
inclined to low spirits. I must guard against this 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 103 

distressing state of mind, and especially against 
that peevishness and irritability, to which, at such 
seasons, I am strongly disposed." By the advice 
of his physician, he suspended his labors for a few 
weeks, passing most of the time at Saratoga, that 
ancient recruiting-place of invalid ministers. 

On his return, he writes, Oct. 3, "Last evening 
we commenced housekeeping, — a new and interest- 
ing scene to us. It is my earnest desire to begin this 
new relation in the wisest and best manner. 

" I would have my family a religious family, and 
all its concerns managed in the fear and for the 
glory of God. I would set myself to engage the 
blessing of Heaven upon me and mine. Oh, may 
the God of Abraham be my God and portion ! " 

The following year, Mr. Hawes suffered still more 
from depression of spirits and physical debility. 
Twice he was obliged to leave his work, — once for 
three weeks, and once for nine. For a time, neither 
he nor the physician seemed to understand that it 
was dyspepsia that was making the trouble, — that 
stealthy plunderer of the health and spirits of over- 
worked ministers, — and that a morning ride on 
horseback would be more promotive of health and 
the Christian hope than medicine, or even prayer, 
without it. 

" Knowing now," he says, " the nature of my 
disease, I feel encouraged to believe that attention 
to my food and exercise, with the blessing of Provi- 
dence, will restore me to health. God ! give me 
health, if it please thee ; but, above all things, give 
me submission." 



104 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

In one of his journeys for health, he writes from 
Anclover, — 

"Andover, Feb. 22, 1819. 

" Here I am in the sacred edifice where. I have 
spent my happiest days, and perhaps exhausted the 
cup of quiet and peaceful enjoyment assigned me 
by a kind Providence in this world. Sure I am 
that little of the peculiar happiness I here enjoyed 
remains to me in this life. I have lived nearly long 
enough to learn that this world is a cheat. I have 
seen so much of its vanity and perplexity, that I 
have almost ceased to anticipate any thing from it 
in future ; and, when anticipated happiness ceases, 
we have not much left that deserves the name." 

How sad when indigestion thus darkens the 
dawn of the brightest day; when lack of gastric 
energy thus makes an old man of a young one, 
and need of physical exercise is mistaken for the 
absence of the Divine Spirit ! 

" Saratoga Springs, June 16, 1819. 

"My very dear Louisa, — My time passes as pleas- 
antly as it can while I am absent from home and 
doing nothing. I study only to pass off my hours 
in the most agreeable manner. 

" I ride, go a-fishing, take a shower-bath, go to 
the reading-room, get the news, and so pass off the 
forenoon. The afternoon is spent much in the 
same way ; and, trifling as this manner of whiling 
away time may seem, I can assure you that I do as 
sincerely ask the blessing of God upon it as I ever 
did upon the composition of a sermon or the labors 
of the Sabbath. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 105 

' " I find Dr. Porter a most agreeable companion. 
Here he is neither doctor of divinity nor professor, 
but only E. Porter." 

In August, 1819, his first babe was laid in the 
arms of the young pastor, — a new link, drawing 
the parents more tenderly and closely together. It 
opened another chapter in their history, and brought 
out into greater fulness latent harmonies and ' capa- 
bilities of their human nature. Before, each found 
a second self in the other: now they both find a 
third self in their first born, to be cradled in love, 
and guarded by duties that are full of delight. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Religious Interest. — Revival. — Series of Revivals. — First Affliction. — 
Lectures to Young Men. 

THE first year or two of Mr. Hawes's ministry 
was a good deal occupied in bringing order 
out of confusion. The half-way covenant had 
wrought its mischievous effects in this church, as 
in many others in New England. When unregen- 
erate men are admitted not only as voters in the 
church, but are elected as leaders to its offices, 
the difference between the church and the world 
is scarcely perceptible, and the idea of a visible 
church well-nigh lost ; and the expedient resorted 
to by Mr. Stoddard of Northampton, and some 
others, to relieve the difficulty by introducing 
what was called the converting power of the Lord's 
Supper, and the admission of the unconverted to 
the communion, only increased it. Through this 
door came into the churches the Unitarian defec- 
tion, which, in the latter part of the last century 
and the early part of the present, silently carried 
away so many of them. An unregenerate member- 
ship will not long cleave to an evangelical creed, or 
tolerate an orthodox ministry. 

106 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 107 

As the best way of meeting the exigencies, Mr. 
Hawes preached the gospel with discrimination and 
affectionate boldness. He set forth in its true colors 
the difference between genuine and spurious con- 
version. He inculcated the necessity and principles 
of church discipline. He employed all his recon- 
structive skill in removing the rubbish of a dead 
formalism, in softening prejudices, in smoothing as- 
perities, in re-joining dissevered beams and braces, 
and in building up all parts of the spiritual edifice 
on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. 

The fruits of this labor began early to appear. 
In the winter of 1819, six young men came to the 
pastor with the great question. They were all 
humble mechanics, and in the employ of a man who 
was a believer in the doctrine of universal salvation. 
All of them were led to the Saviour in an intelli- 
gent and peaceful hope. Four of the six soon com- 
menced a preparation for the ministry under the 
pastor's direction, and by his assistance. Three 
entered it, — one of them being Father Gleason, the 
noted missionary to the Indians ; and one joined 
the assembly of the first-born in heaven just as he 
was completing his preparation. These early fruits 
were an encouragement to Mr. Hawes, and did much 
to make his a revival-ministry. 

The first pastors of this church, Hooker and 
Stone, in spirit and principle were revival -men. 
The first twenty years of Dr. Strong's ministry 
were singularly lean in spiritual results. During 
the latter half, he was more successful. 



108 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

In the summer of 1820, the interest in religious 
subjects had become more general ; and a few were 
willing to acknowledge themselves serious inquirers. 
Slowly, but steadily, the work increased till near 
the close of the year, when the health of the pastor 
required a suspension of labor and a brief absence. 

On his return he says, " It was apparent that the 
Spirit of God had been diffusing a silent, gentle 
influence among the people, exciting in some a 
spirit of prayer, and producing in others a suscepti- 
bility to divine truth which they had not before mani- 
fested. So it continued till soon after the opening 
of the new year, when it became manifest that God 
was, in very deed, in the midst of us. The last 
Friday in January, being that preceding the sacra- 
ment, was set apart by the church as a day of fast- 
ing and prayer. We assembled in the morning in 
the old brick conference-room in Temple Street. 
It was filled ; and the meeting was one of great ten- 
derness and solemnity. 

" Very little was said except in the secrecy of each 
one's own bosom and in united prayer. But a power 
mightier than human speech was there ; and all felt 
that silence was most becoming in such a presence. 
It was agreed to meet in the same place in the after- 
noon : but, long before the appointed hour of as- 
sembling, the house was crowded in every part ; and 
great numbers were standing without, unable to 
enter. The meeting was adjourned to the church, 
which was well filled ; and the exercises of the occa- 
sion were exceedingly impressive. We all felt that 
a revival of great power had commenced among us. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 109 

In my inexperience and insufficiency, I felt that I 
needed assistance. Dr. Beecher, then Mr. Beecher 
of Litchfield, known to have had large experience 
in such scenes, was sent for, and kindly came to 
my aid, and spent some two 'weeks with us, preach- 
ing with great power, visiting from house to house 
with the pastor, and giving counsel to inquirers 
individually, or collected in private dwellings, on 
the great concern of salvation. The only measure 
resorted to to carry forward the revival, besides 
preaching and prayer, was the meeting for inquiry, 
or the anxious meeting as it was sometimes called, 
commonly held immediately after the public reli- 
gious service. These were meetings of the deepest 
interest. They were attended by persons of every 
age and standing in society, varying in * number 
from sixty to one hundred, two hundred, and three 
hundred, all thoughtful and anxious as awakened 
by the Holy Spirit, and in earnest to know what 
they must do to be saved. Conviction of sin was 
often very deep and pungent, and lasted from two 
to three and four weeks, or longer, and was then 
succeeded by submission and peaceful hope. For 
several weeks, the work went on with undiminished 
power ; and great was the joy on earth and in 
heaven over sinners repenting, and giving their 
hearts to God. I never saw any church so deeply 
and so generally moved as in the beginning and 
progress of this revival. Correspondingly abundant 
and precious were the fruits gathered from among 
the impenitent. Nearly two hundred were added 
to the church in the course of the year, the great 



110 LIFE OF DR. II A WES. 

body of whom gave evidence, in their subsequent 
course j of sound conversion." 

The ministry of Mr. Hawes was marked by a 
series of similar revivals, — ten in forty-four years. 
One, in 1826, continued about a year, and brought 
to the new life of faith a large number of the 
young. Another, in 1829, included both young and 
old, and made large and valuable accessions to the 
church. In 1831, the expedient of a protracted 
meeting was resorted to, the first that was held in 
Connecticut. Mr. Hawes doubted the wisdom of it ; 
but, as the pastors of the North and South churches 
favored it, he acquiesced. 

"It was an occasion," he says, "of deep and 
prayerful interest ; and many of the impenitent were 
hopefully converted. But, as I feared, the influence, 
on the whole, was to run the revival directly to a 
head : and, after the close of the meeting, there was 
a subsidence of interest ; and I heard of very few 
awakened or converted from that time. I do not 
state this as an argument against protracted meet- 
ings or special religious services in all circumstances, 
as connected with revivals ; but I state a fact, by 
no means a solitary one, which may at least suggest 
some lessons of instruction and caution in relation 
to this subject. 

"The year 1834 was memorable for the impres- 
sions made upon a class who were seemingly con- 
firmed in their indifference and worldliness. Many 
of them were persons of character and standing in 
society. I knew, that, if they were not soon saved, 
they would be past hope. I often referred to them 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. Ill 

directly in my preaching and my prayers ; and fre- 
quently, when I saw them retiring from the sanc- 
tuary at the close of the Sabbath services, uncon- 
cerned as they had been for years, I felt as if I 
should sink down in the pulpit. During the fall 
and winter of 1833, I thought I saw some signs of 
approaching good ; and I set myself with new ear- 
nestness to the work of pastoral visitation. Four 
weeks immediately after the opening of the new 
year I devoted to this service, visiting and convers- 
ing with all, or nearly all, the families of my charge, 
especially of the church, and closing the interview 
with prayer whenever it could properly be done. 
It was an arduous but most profitable service. The 
Lord, I found in many cases, had been before me by 
his Spirit ; and I saw indications of a revival near 
at hand which I could not mistake. I felt my need 
of assistance in the way of preaching ; and Dr. Taylor 
was invited to come to my aid. He spent a week or 
more among us \ and his preaching was with great 
power. The searching, awakening, pungent truths 
of the gospel have seldom, it is believed, been pro- 
claimed with greater clearness and force/' 

This revival went forward steadily, but powerfully, 
for several months ; and, as the fruit of it, from sixty 
to seventy were added to the church. 

In 1838, there was a special work of grace ex- 
tending to most of the churches in the city. Dur- 
ing the winter of 1841-42, Rev. Mr. Kirk labored 
for several weeks in the different Congregational 
churches, and with very marked effect. " His after- 
noon discourses, designed especially for Christians," 



112 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

says Mr. Hawes, "were eminently suited to elevate 
the spirit of piety, and excite the friends of Christ 
to a livelier interest in promoting his cause. But 
there were other results : it gathered a large num- 
ber, especially from the young, into the fold of 
Christ." 

In 1852, and in 1857 and 1858, large accessions 
also were made to the church, both in numbers and 
in the moral force of its members. 

The subject of revivals is one about which there 
has been, and still is, some diversity of opinion, espe- 
cially respecting the means and modes of promoting 
them. The time is past when those calling them- 
selves Christians ridicule or seriously object to them. 
The unevangelic denominations feel their need of 
them, tnd, in some form, seek to secure them. All 
religionists and some irreligionists hold a doctrine 
of revivals ; and none denounce more dogmatically 
all languishments and apathy in professors of re- 
ligion than those who deny the possibility of any 
special awakenings or supernatural divine influence. 

The history of the Church shows such quicken- 
ing seasons to be a part of the providential plan 
for its increase. Decline is the law of fallen hu- 
manity; renewal, revival, the law of a recovering 
divine purpose and power. The patriarchs and 
prophets labored and prayed for this renewal. 
" Give us a little reviving in our bondage," 
prays Ezra. " Wilt thou not revive us again," 
cries David, "that thy people may rejoice in 
thee ? " While, therefore, these seasons did not 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 113 

originate in New England , they found in its theology 
and its piety a fertile soil. 

Mr. Hawes was a stanch friend of revivals, and 
a discreet and earnest worker for them and in them. 
In reference to what were called " new measures/' 
he was very cautious. He did not like parade, pre- 
tence, or noise. He did not favor a frequent resort 
to " four-days' meetings " as a means of awakening 
interest in a slumbering, apathetic church. He 
thought, for such a purpose, they were generally 
a failure, or were productive of only a four-days' 
excitement that was scarcely better. As a method 
of promoting a religious interest, he questioned 
whether the danger was not greater of ending it 
in four clays than of continuing it. In the closing 
reflections of his sermon, " Eecollections of Revi- 
vals in Hartford," he gives his views on the theory 
and value of these special seasons : — 

" The whole theory of revivals is involved in these 
two facts ; viz., that the influence of the Holy Spirit 
is concerned in every instance of sound conversion, 
and that this influence is granted in more copious 
measure and in greater power at some times than at 
others. When these facts concur, there is a revival 
of religion." He did not regard even a succession 
of revivals as marking the highest and best state of 
the Church; for it implied also successive periods 
of decline in religion. " That is not a good state of 
health in which a man is well one day, and sick the 
next. That is not a good and fruitful season in 
which drought succeeds flood ; and killing frosts, 
the burning heat of the sun. Neither is that the 



114 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

best type of religion which alternates from engaged- 
ness to indifference : nor that the best state of the 
Church in which its members are asleep at one 
time, and awake at another ; or in which they are 
all alive and in earnest for a season, and then fall 
into a state of indifference and negligence." 

Yet, in the present state of the Church and the 
world, he regarded these effusions of the Spirit as 
indispensable to the life of religion and the advance- 
ment of the cause of Christ. 

" We see how it is when revivals are withheld only 
for a few years. Declension advances in the Church 
with fearful strides ; worldliness rolls in its torrent 
of bewildering and deadening influences ; the spirit 
of watchfulness and prayer, and of tender concern 
for the impenitent, dies out ; the desolations of moral 
death spread around ; and sinners, with only now 
and then a solitary conversion among them, are 
seen in growing crowds rising upon the stage, utterly 
regardless of God and then own immortal interests. 
What, then, would be the consequence if revivals 
were wholly stayed, and no more special seasons of 
refreshing from the presence of the Lord were 
granted ? It would be like staying the showers of 
heaven ; like changing the seasons into one long, 
dreary winter : universal dearth, famine, and death 
would follow. No : we must have revivals, or the 
Church cannot exist as a living, spiritual body, and 
all hope in respect to the salvation of sinners must 
have an end. Not a church in the midst of us could 
survive twenty years as a living, fruitful church, un- 
visited by the refreshing influence of a revival." 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 115 

As darkness follows day, so in this life do sorrows 
joy. The bud of beauty that sprang up in the 
garden of Mr. Hawes's social affections, August, 
1819, and diffused its sweet fragrance in his home 
a little more than four years, suddenly drooped, 
and was transplanted, to mature its bloom and 
beauty in the paradise above. In a letter to a 
sister of Mrs. Hawes, the afflicted father discloses 
the deep wound he has received. 

"Hartford, Sept. 21, 1823. 

u My clear Mary, — I am induced to seek some 
relief from the sadness of this trying hour by telling 
you the sorrows which God has cast into our cup. 
Our dear Louisa is no more : she died last evening, 
after a sickness of nine days. The trial is to us 
almost insupportable. We would not murmur. We 
know a righteous God has done it: but nature 
bleeds under the stroke ; and we are overwhelmed 
with grief. She was a lovely child, our first-born. 
Her mind had begun to open its promising beauties, 
and her affectionate heart to return with gratitude 
the kindness of her parents. But she is gone : we 
shall see her no more among the living • no more be 
greeted by her cheerful countenance ; no more direct 
her steps in the path of duty and heaven. In that 
blessed world, we trust, her spirit is now at rest. 
There, after spending a few more days on earth, may 
we meet her, and, with the great company of the 
redeemed, render praise to Him who loves little 
children, and graciously said, 6 Of such is the kingdom 
of heaven ' ! " 



116 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

The "dear Mary" to whom this letter was ad- 
dressed was a younger sister of Mrs. Hawe£, who, for 
several years, had made her home with them. Mr. 
Hawes took a deep interest in her improvement, and 
particularly in her religious instruction and pros- 
perity. She was afterwards married at his house, 
and now survives, the last of her father's family, an 
intelligent and excellent woman, the wife of the 
Hon. Julius Catliu. 

Mr. Hawes has now passed through the curriculum 
of Providence in the relations of life for the develop- 
ment of the social and moral nature. First he is a 
son, then a husband, last a father ; when the family- 
circle is complete. He has tasted its pure joys, and 
felt its educating and elevating influence. 

Then comes a change. A link in the golden chain 
suddenly drops out. The bereavement is startling: 
it emphasizes all his preceding parental joys by their 
sudden termination. ,But it does not deprive him 
of the benefit of having possessed them : it gives 
him a depth and tenderness of sympathy with all 
afflicted parents which comes only from experience, 
and which, to a pastor, is almost invaluable in his 
ministries to the sorrowing. 

One of the incidental results of the early revivals 
in Mr. Hawes's pastoral work was his " Lectures to 
Young Men." The germs of these lectures sprang 
up as he was laboring in these scenes for the youth 
of his charge. He saw more clearly than ever the 
dangers to which young men were exposed ; he felt 
more the difficulties they had to encounter in de- 
ciding; on a religious life ; and he cultivated assid- 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 117 

uously the art of attracting them to a free conference 
with him, and to confessionals, which made him more 
acquainted, not only with those thus drawn into his 
confidence, but, through them, with their compan- 
ions also. This put into his hand a key to the 
whole important class, and opened to him new ways 
and means of reaching them. 

Nothing so strips the veil from vice and crime, and 
lets the sunlight of truth into the dark dens of pol- 
lution and error in which young men so often herd, 
as the thorough working of God's Spirit in a revival 
of religion. Mr. Hawes was moved by a strong 
desire to do something for the young men. He 
inquired more carefully into their condition and 
temptations ; he interested himself more particu- 
larly for their intellectual and moral improvement ; 
and finally projected the plan of a course of lec- 
tures. 

In the autumn of 1827, on. successive Sabbath 
evenings, he delivered them to the young men of 
Hartford. They were so favorably received, that Mr. 
Hawes was requested to repeat them to the students 
of Yale College. The impression made in the two 
cities, and the request of the young men, determined 
their publication. / 

The first edition appeared in April, 1828, — five 
lectures, in a duodecimo of a hundred and seventy- 
two pages. In a notice of the book, " The Spirit of 
the Pilgrims" says, " The general style of execution 
evinces the workings of a mind well acquainted with 
the subject in hand, and a benevolence of spirit cal- 
culated to appeal with effect to the youthful heart. 



118 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

There is, throughout, a manly, business-like exhibi- 
tion of truth and counsel. The language is perspic- 
uous, pithy, chaste, and natural.' ' 

The first edition was immediately taken up, and a 
second called for. " We like these lectures," says 
" The Christian Spectator " in its notice of the second 
edition, " because they are written in a plain, manly, 
and business-like style ; because they are replete 
with such instruction, arguments, and motives as 
should be addressed to every young man in the 
nation." 

To the third edition was added a "Lecture on 
Reading," prepared for the Mechanics' Association 
in Hartford, and repeated to the young men of the 
author's congregation. Other editions followed 
rapidly till 1856. Then two more lectures were 
added, — "The Causes of Success and of Failure in 
Life," and " The Claims of the Bible on Young Men; " 
when the copyright was transferred to the Congre- 
gational Board of Publication. In making this 
arrangement, true to his first and only pastoral love, 
the author stipulated that fifty copies should be 
annually sent for distribution among the young men 
of the First Church and Society in Hartford. 

It is probable that at that time no discourses to 
young men in the English language had met with a 
more extensive demand. Nearly a hundred thou- 
sand copies had been circulated in this country. It 
was also republished in Great Britain, a still larger 
number being circulated there. Perhaps no simi- 
lar book has ever produced a more salutary impres- 
sion upon the class to whom it was addressed. In 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 119 

the preface to the Board's edition, Mr. Hawes says 
he has heard of more than eighty young men who 
have traced the commencement of their Christian 
life to impressions received from the reading of this 
book. Doubtless there was also a much larger num- 
ber of whom he never heard. 

/ At the time the lectures were prepared, the field 
occupied by them was comparatively new : there 
was nothing exactly like them in English literature. 
His was soon followed by other excellent works, 
among which Henry Ward Beeeher's was the most 
popular. The drift of Mr. Beecher's is to make 
young men industrious and honest, and to keep 
them from the prevalent vices and crimes of society, 
— an exceedingly important object, and admirably 
executed : the animus of Mr. Hawes's course is to 
make them intelligent, patriotic, and earnest Chris- 
tians. The former sparkles with wit and humor: 
the latter is all aglow, but without either. One 
gives keen thrusts at vice : the other deals heavy 
blows at sin. Both are rich in practical wisdom 
and Christian principle ; and both are written in 
strong Saxon, and marked with something of Doric 
beauty. 

This book placed Mr. Hawes in the fore-front 
of good writers, and successful, practical thinkers; 
and the eminence which the first ten years of his 
ministry gave him procured for him the degree of 
D.D. from his Alma Mater, at a time when such 
honors were not so cheap as they have since become. 
But to have written a book which the author knew 



120 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

had been the means of drawing to the life of faith 
nearly a hundred young men, and which has proba- 
bly been the means of such a blessing to more than 
twice, and perhaps thrice, that number, — this, to 
any man or angel, is worth a lifetime of labor. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Travels in Great Britain and France. — Welcome Home. 

rTlHE prolonged religious interest in 1829-30, with 
-L the anxiety and toil of the pastor, made some 
relaxation and rest expedient for him. In the 
spring of 1831, Dr. Hawes signified to his people 
a desire to be absent for a few months on a tour 
to Europe. /Consent was readily given, and the 
means of defraying his expenses voted. " Such an 
expression of their generous kindness," he writes 
in his journal, " binds me to them by new and 
stronger ties." 

He sailed on the 31st of May, in company with 
four other clergymen, — Dr. Samuel Green of Bos- 
ton, Dr. Nettleton, Dr. Hewitt, and Prof. Hovey, — 
all marked men. Dr. Nettleton had gained distinc- 
tion as a wise and successful evangelist. Dr. Lyman 
Beecher said of him at this period, " Considering 
the extent of his influence, I regard him as one 
of the greatest benefactors God has given to this 
nation, and among the most efficient instruments 
of introducing the glory of the latter day." The 
object of his absence from the country was relaxa- 
tion, and, so far as he was able to remove the 

121 



122 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

prejudices respecting American revivals which, had 
been occasioned in England by such writers as Mrs. 
Trollop e and Mr. Colton. 

Dr. Hewitt had become almost equally well 
known by his power as a preacher and temperance 
lecturer. His mission was to disabuse the English 
people respecting the temperance reform in New 
England, and to inaugurate the same in Old England. 
He arrived in London June 28, and, the following 
day, addressed a large temperance -meeting in Exe- 
ter Hall. His few prefatory words propitiated his 
numerous auditory, and took the citadel before a 
gun was fired. " Although my being was begun 
in New England, I am of old English origin ; and 
British blood, in mingled streams of English and 
Irish, runs through my veins. If, therefore, I should 
be too free, remember my English blood ; and, if I 
should err, remember my Irish blood." Something 
of the power of his eloquence may be understood 
from an English journalist, who cut his report short 
by declaring it "impossible to print thunder and 
lightning." 

The journal of Dr. Hawes furnishes pleasant 
glimpses of his first experience in foreign travel. 
His plan included a visit to England, France, Scot- 
land, and Ireland; and his entries give quite as 
graphic pictures of the traveller as of the countries 
he passed through. 

"June 19, Sabbath. — Thought, 'How amiable are 
Thy tabernacles ! ' I longed for home ; wept when 
I remembered my pulpit and people. Eainy : no 
service on deck. Languor, sickness, irresolution, 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 123 

prevent useful effort on board ship. No place for 
religion. 

" July 1. — Called on the Rev. Mr. James. Received 
a most hearty welcome, and a pressing invitation 
to put up with him while I stay in Bath. This I 
was obliged to decline, as I had previously engaged 
to spend my time with another friend. 

"July 3. — Preached this morning for Mr. J. to 
a very large and attentive congregation. It was a 
sacramental occasion ; and I had the privilege of 
sitting down with fellow- Christians, in this strange 
land, at the table of Christ. It was a precious 
season. 

" Oxford is a paradise, — the most beautiful place 
I ever saw. It is a city of colleges, built in the 
most princely style. There are nineteen in num- 
ber, besides four halls. Christ's College has been 
founded more than a* thousand years. It has, at 
present, the largest number of students, — upwards 
of four hundred. The grounds in front, along the 
banks of the Isis, are decorated with shaded walks 
and fine groves exquisitely beautiful: indeed, the 
scenery around the place is enchantment. I visited 
several of the colleges; but, as it was vacation, I 
saw but very few of the students or professors." 

" London. — Sabbath, 10th. 

"Heard Mr. Irving. He was on his favorite 
subject, — the text in Ephesians, first chapter, last 
verse, — the Church, 6 the fulness of Him that 
filleth all in all ; ' the fulness spoken of, the ful- 
ness of divine power, residing in the Church, of 



124 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

course, — the power for working miracles. The 
Church, he affirmed, was constituted in the pos- 
session of this power : it has never been taken 
away. If there is a Church, she must have this 
power ; for the Church is the body of Christ. The 
only reason why the Church does not speak with 
tongues, and prophesy, is unbelief in her members. 
Some of these begin to have faith ; and the power 
in them is manifest. He had seen it ; he had him- 
self been able to exercise it. He stated a case 
of healing that had occurred the week preceding 
in answer to his prayers. 

" The whole subject of miraculous gifts as pos- 
sessed in the primitive Church deserves attentive 
consideration. The delusion into which I cannot 
but think some of these men have fallen arises from 
false principles of interpretation. This is especially 
true of Mr. Irving. It will, I fear, spread for a 
time, as there are always weak and enthusiastic 
persons to embrace such notions ; but I wait to see 
and hear more of this in Scotland, where the gift 
of speaking in unknown tongues is specially mani- 
fest." 

Of "Westminster Abbey he says, " No descrip- 
tion can be given of it. It is a strange spec- 
tacle. There lie in promiscuous assemblage kings, 
queens, statesmen, warriors, poets, scholars, pros- 
titutes, and villains, each, by his epitaph, now in 
heaven, but all waiting the decisions of the last day, 
which, in a great majority of cases, will, it cannot be 
doubted, reverse forever the judgment of man. Many 
of the statues were greatly disfigured, — some by vio- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 125 

lence, and some by the slow but certainly consuming 
hand of time . Ambitious as the great may be to have 
a place in this abbey, I could not but feel, while 
viewing the dark, decayed, worm - eaten monu- 
ments in this receptacle of departed ones, that the 
resting-place of Martyn or Brainerd is far more 
desirable. Every attempt of poor dying man to per- 
petuate a memorial of himself is vain. Time mocks 
at such efforts, and will finally sweep into oblivion 
all the works and the monuments of men. If any 
one wishes to see the vanity of earthly greatness, 
or to have spread before him in most affecting 
colors the folly, the depravity, and the pride of 
man, let him visit Westminster Abbey. 

"The Parliament House has nothing of interest 
about it, except that it is the place of the nation's 
grand councils. The woolsack,- on which I saw 
Lord Brougham seated, resembles a bag of cotton 
covered with scarlet velvet. The countenance of 
the chancellor is extremely interesting, marked 
with deep lines of thought, and occasionally with no 
small share of sarcasm. 

" Called this afternoon on the Rev. George Burden 
found him living with his youngest son, a physician, 
in Brunswick Square. He is, indeed, a venerable 
old man ; just entered his eightieth year ; his locks 
white as the snow ; 'his countenance beaming with 
meekness and benevolence ; his voice pleasant ; his 
person erect, of middling stature ; social, kind, 
devout, full of anecdote, and very instructive in 
his conversation. Though I threw myself upon 
him without an introduction, I was most kindly 



126 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

received by him and his son, and was constrained 
to stay to tea. He was well acquainted with Wes- 
ley and Whitefield. 

"They used to travel together, and frequently oc- 
cupied the same room for lodging. On a certain 
occasion, Whitefield, being fatigued by preaching, 
was shorter than usual in his secret devotions before 
retiring. Wesley reproved him for being so short 
and superficial. The next night, each knelt by his 
bedside as usual. Whitefield, on rising, still found 
his friend Wesley on his knees, but fast asleep. The 
occasion was not lost to return the reproof. . 

"Mr. Burder was well acquainted with Eobert 
Hall and Fuller. The latter he thought much 
the more useful man. Hall had an aversion to the 
labor of writing, which, with him, was very great. 
He once said to a friend who asked him why he 
did not publish more, 'It costs me so much labor, 
that I cannot. I can never satisfy myself in a com- 
position without writing it over four or five times.' 

" Dined with Dr. Henderson, Principal of High- 
bury College, and well known as the author of 
c Travels in Iceland.' A most interesting man, — 
more of the affable, the kind, the generous, the 
open and frank in him than I have seen in any 
other man in England. 

" The college over which Dr. Henderson presides 
was established three or four years since ; has about 
forty students in a four-years' course of classical and 
theological education, and a library of two or three 
thousand volumes. 

" I cannot but think that the superficial education 






LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 127 

that prevails among the dissenting ministers is one 
principal reason why their cause is not more flour- 
ishing, and why men of thought and taste are so 
often going over to the Church. 

" The few hours I spent in the society of Dr. 
Henderson and family have left impressions on my 
mind which I wish long to cherish ; and they have 
led me to form some purposes which I hope I may 
be able to fulfil. 

"Sabbath, 17th.— Preached for Dr. Pye Smith, 
morning and afternoon, in the pulpit once occupied 
by Priestley, Price, Belsham, and recently by Asp- 
land, the ablest among the Unitarians. The con- 
gregation very small, but attentive. 

"Arrived at Calais about eight in the evening. 
The quay filled with spectators, male and female, 
watching the arrival of the boat. . It was sufficiently 
amusing to find myself in the hands of a French 
soldier, undergoing a search, lest I, a plain, well- 
meaning parson, should be plotting treason or re- 
bellion, or smuggling some contraband article of 
trade among thirty- two millions of people. This 
system of passport and search is an absurdity, and 
cannot last much longer. 

" Saturday, 23d. — Took a last look of the Palais 
Eoyal and the Tuileries. Saw the king on his way 
to the House of Deputies. Eaised my hat to his 
royal majesty; and could hardly refrain from shout- 
ing with the multitude, ' Vive le vol ! ' He is a fine- 
looking man ; extremely graceful on horseback ; 
and bowed, and smiled very pleasantly, as he 
passed the soldiers and the crowd on full gallop. 



128 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

" Sabbath, 24th. — No Sabbath in Paris. The 
shops are open ; the streets filled with carriages ; the 
soldiers on parade : and all kinds of business and 
pleasure are to be seen just as on other days. I 
attended church in the morning in a French Protes- 
tant chapel, and heard a Mr. Audeben. "Went in the 
afternoon to the Chapel of the Oratoire, and heard 
Mr. Wilks. The audience still smaller. The sermon 
was not great, nor eloquent, but a charming exhibi- 
tion of Christian feeling. 

" Monday, 25th. — I have just been surveying the 
Gardens of the Tuileries, — a most splendid sight, 
displaying alike the wealth, the taste, and the folly 
of the successive monarchs who have contributed 
to bring this enchanting scene to its present state 
of elegance and splendor. 

" Dined with Mr. Wilks. Found him and Mrs. 
Wilks exceedingly interesting people. Went thence 
to Mr. Henry Lutteroth's, where we met a large 
circle of Christian people, among whom were Rev. 
Daniel Wilson, Frederick Monod and his brother 
Rodolphe, John Grandpiere, Audeben, and several 
other ministers. 

" Aug. 6. — Visited the Eoyal Library, the largest 
in the world, containing eighteen hundred thousand 
volumes and nine thousand manuscripts, accessible 
at all times to the student ; and saw some hundreds 
of persons in the different rooms exploring these 
rich mines of knowledge. Oh ! when will my beloved 
country have any thing that will compare with this 
splendid establishment ? 

" Aug. 16. — Called on Rev. Charles Simmon, fellow 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 129 

of King'3 College, and minister of St. Mary's Church. 
Found him in his parlor, seated on a sofa, engaged 
in preparing a set of sermons which he is to deliver 
before the university during the next term. He 
received me very affectionately, and immediately en- 
tered upon conversation of a deeply-spiritual char- 
acter. He complained much of the religious spirit 
of the age ; yet he says a great and most salutary 
change has taken place in the university since he 
was connected with it. Once he stood all alone, and 
was accustomed to go a hundred miles to attend a 
meeting of ministers of like sentiments with him- 
self. Now how very different ! 

" Arrived at Edinburgh late Saturday evening, 
chilled through with the piercing wind of the high 
lands, and excessively fatigued, having rode (most 
of the time on the top of the stage) sixteen hours. 
Felt very lonely : no living being, so far as I knew, 
within hundreds of miles of me, who knew me, or 
felt the least interest in me. Thought of home, of 
God, of heaven, and endeavored to compose myself 
to rest. 

" Tuesday, 31st. — Breakfasted with Dr. Chalmers. 
He had an engagement to attend a wedding. He 
is a great admirer of Prof. Stuart, and spoke in high 
terms of Dr. Alexander's 6 Canons of Scripture.' 
He thought it the best he had seen. 

" Sept. 6. — Took breakfast with Rev. Christopher 
Anderson, an intelligent and most excellent minister 
in the Baptist communion. Mr. Anderson told me, 
that when Rev. Andrew Fuller was visiting Oxford, 
while his friend was pointing out to him the splendor 



130 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

of some of these ancient and venerable piles, he 
said, i Brother, this is all well enough ; bnt there is 
one point about justification.' His heart was some- 
where else. Left at three o'clock for Glasgow ; ar- 
rived a little after seven. Next morning, called on 
Dr. Warcllaw ; visited with him the University and 
the Museum. Sabbath afternoon, heard the doctor 
preach. 

" The sermon was distinguished for a neat, per- 
spicuous style, — somewhat wordy, serious, evan- 
gelical, and affectionate, but not striking, not ener- 
getic or forcible. His voice is small, but its tones 
sweet and well managed. He is, on the whole, 
just such a preacher as I should expect would con- 
tinue to be interesting and useful to a congregation 
year after year. Preached in the evening for Dr. 
Warcllaw. Was rather embarrassed, not being in 
usual health. The assembly was deeply attentive. 

" Monday evening. — Disappointed in not seeing 
or hearing from Dr. Wardlaw. . . . 

" Let me learn the importance of paying proper 
attention to strangers. I have been neglectful in 
this respect; and it is a resolution I have often 
determined to carry into effect, if I live to get home, 
that I will be more attentive to the rites of hospi- 
tality, especially to strangers. 

" Friday, Sept. 9. — Spent a pleasant day in Bel- 
fast. Called on Dr. Cooke ; and, though I had no 
introduction, I met with a very cordial reception. 
He is a leading man among the Orthodox, and has 
been the chief instrument in bringing about a sep- 
aration between the Unitarians and Orthodox in 






LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 131 

the synod of Ulster. One of the painful things in 
travelling is to meet friends only to part from them ; 
to love, and then to separate. 

" 10th. — At five o'clock, took onr seats on the 
top of the stage for Dublin. 

" The country to Newry, thirty miles, where we 
breakfasted, was, in general, fertile ; and the state 
of the people, principally Protestant, appeared to be 
much the same as it was north of Belfast. Beyond 
Newry, the aspect both of the people and of the coun- 
try changed much for the worse, — the land in many 
places rocky and barren, and the people here 
Catholic, poor, and miserable in the extreme ; their 
houses built of mud, without chimneys, without 
floors, without lights, without partitions, filthy in- 
side and out, and serving as a cover for pigs, 
children, and all together. Met large numbers of 
women, girls, and boys, driving asses to market, 
loaded with panniers of peat, — the most ragged, 
wretched, vacant, mindless beings I ever saw. My 
heart was deeply pained all day at the sight of 
objects of distress ; and never did the ways of Provi- 
dence seem more mysterious to me. 

" Sept. 17. — So I am on my return to my beloved 
home and people. I leave these shores with mingled 
emotions of regret and of pleasure. The time I 
have spent here has passed very pleasantly, and, I 
hope, not unprofitably. I have met with almost 
uniform kindness, and have experienced many at- 
tentions of which I am unworthy. I leave behind 
me many friends whom I highly esteem. This 
morning, as I went on deck, the sailors were 



132 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

engaged in putting the ship about. Observing the 
poor fellows hard at work, I put to, and helped pull 
the ropes ; when a heavy sea struck the ship, and 
rolled torrents of water over me. It was very 
amusing to the merry tars to see the parson wet ; 
and, as I had so often laughed to see them and 
my fellow-passengers ducked, I thought it was right 
enough that they should have their turn. 

"Oct. 22. — It is Saturday evening; and I have 
just finished a sermon for my people, — a strange 
place, indeed, for this kind of labor. I have written 
it in the midst of gambling, talking, singing, fid- 
dling, fluting, dancing, the tramping and shouting 
of sailors over my head, the roaring of winds, and 
the rolling of waves. I am weary of this tossing, 
of this confinement ; of this wretched way of spend- 
ing time, especially the Sabbaths of the Lord." 

Dr. Hawes reached home the latter part of Octo- 
ber, after an absence of five months. These extracts 
from his journal show him to have been a good 
traveller. He gained access to some of the most 
distinguished theologians and philanthropists in 
England, France, Scotland, and Ireland. He was 
inquisitive and communicative, affable and dignified. 
He saw the dark side of the times and of things as 
well as the light. He appreciated very highly the 
Christian hospitality he received ; and resolved to 
be himself ever after more courteous, especially to 
strangers. His acquaintance with the world and 
with human nature was very much extended by 
the tour, and his resources in general knowledge 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 133 

and geographical and historic illustration very con- 
siderably increased by it. Through his wise expe- 
dient of a somewhat minute journal, he brought 
back much valuable information which he might 
not otherwise have secured, or would soon have 
lost. 

Some men are seldom so really, perhaps never 
so ostentatiously, themselves, as when abroad. 
Scarcely any thing tries their good or bad temper 
more than what often occurs in foreign travel. To 
be a stranger among strangers, and also seeking 
their acquaintance ; to depend on their courtesies, 
and be liable to meet their rebuffs ; to be subject 
to needless delays when one is in haste ; to suffer 
from the heedlessness of servants, the impositions 
and extortions of public and private officials, — this 
destroys half their pleasure of travel, and often all 
their equanimity and civility. One who writes 
a journal under these circumstances writes his own 
life, his likes and dislikes, his piety and his peevish- 
ness, better than any one could write it for him. 
He tells not only what he sees and hears, what 
he thinks and feels, but what he is. It is evident 
from Dr. Hawes's journal that he was often amused, 
but never fretted ; always interested, sometimes an- 
noyed, but never lost his balance. 

His welcome home was most cordial; and he 
entered on his work with new love for it and for his 
people. 






CHAPTER Vin. 

Preaches at Protracted Meetings. — Calls to New York, Boston, Phila- 
delpliia, Buffalo, Providence. 

THE decade from 1830 to 1840 was a period of 
extensive religious interest. Dr. Nettle ton's 
judicious labors had been attended with signal marks 
of divine favor in the Middle States as well as in 
New England. Mr. Finney had just commenced his 
unique, lawyer-like exposition and application of 
what he regarded as new and improved views of 
theology. Dr. Beecker's labors in Boston were in 
harmony with this interesting feature of the times. 
His preaching was lucid and bold, and bore hard 
upon the thoughtless and slumbering in the Church 
and out of it. 

The whole heart of Dr. Hawes was in the move- 
ment. He preached abundantly in his own and 
other parishes and cities. In the autumn of 1833 
commenced the fourth general awakening in his 
ministry of sixteen years, which resulted in the ac- 
cession of between sixty and seventy to the church. 
His faith in the divine efficiency and human depend- 
ence, instead of leading him to wait for these seasons 
of special quickening, and deal only in dull dogmas 

134 



LIFE OF DR. II A WES. 135 

or glittering generalities, led him to work and pray 
while he waited on the Lord. He prayed for a 
revival, preached for a revival, visited, talked, 
and trusted in God for a revival ; and, in the 
intervals of decline, he indoctrinated his church- 
members, cultivated their Christian virtues, directed 
their religious activities into the channels of mis- 
sionary and charitable institutions, and labored to 
build up a public conscience and religious sentiment 
in the community. 

He had now reached the ripe period of his life and 
his ministry. His habits of study and labor were 
fixed, and his character and influence measured and 
somewhat established. He was favorably known on 
both sides of the Atlantic, and was in friendly cor- 
respondence with some of the most eminent scholars 
and Christian philanthropists in the mother-country. 
He was interested in all the missionary and benevo- 
lent enterprises of the age ; and his counsel was 
sought as a director in many of them. About this 
time, he was elected a corporate member of the 
American Board of Commissioners, and a member of 
the Corporation of Yale College. 

There were other more eloquent preachers in the 
land than Dr. Hawes ; but, of ministers combining 
the qualities of preacher and pastor, there were few, 
if any, more highly appreciated, or more earnestly 
sought after. 

When Mr. Hawes accepted his call to Hartford, he 
had been strongly solicited to go to Newburyport as 
the colleague and successor of Dr. Spring \ and when, 
after a year or two, under the double pressure of 



136 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

labor and dyspepsia, his health began to fail, and the 
subject was again urged on the ground that a 
change might be favorable, he did not, for a moment, 
entertain the idea. 

In 1828, Dr. Hawes received a call to settle over 
the Bowery Presbyterian Church in the city of New 
York. The committee appointed to present the in- 
vitation were Eleazer Lord, Arthur Tappan, and An- 
son G. Phelps. Mr. Lord, who was unable to accom- 
pany the committee to Hartford, states in a letter 
the urgency of the case, and its claims to a favorable 
consideration : — 

" Though I have every reason to believe that you 
would find yourself most agreeably situated here as 
to social and domestic matters, and whatever relates 
to private and personal relations and circumstances, 
I know your thoughts will be turned to questions of 
higher moment. I would observe, then, that I have 
no hesitation in considering this church as now pre- 
senting the most inviting and promising field of use- 
fulness of any, whether vacant or not, in the country. 
Its location could not be better. It is substantially 
constituted of those who are of one mind as to active, 
benevolent, and self-denying exertion for the fur- 
therance of the cause of religion. 

u A wide and boundless field of influence and use- 
fulness is presented here in relation to the evangeli- 
cal interests and ecclesiastical affairs of the whole 
Presbyterian Church, and to the benevolent institu- 
tions whose operations centre here. 

" May I use the freedom of saying, that I feel a 
very strong conviction, that, by coming here, you will 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 137 

make more of your future life than could be reason- 
ably expected without a change ? I hope and pray 
that it may so appear to you." 

The Eev. Dr. Hallock wrote, — 

" It is my deliberate opinion, that there are not 
better materials for forming an efficient session and 
church connected with any church in this city than 
are now connected with the Bowery Church. Mr. 
Lord you are acquainted with. Mr. Tappan has a 
strength in the cause of benevolence which exceeds 
the whole united strength of almost any church in 
this city. Mr. Phelps is a devout man, and a man 
of great liberality. Brother Brigham of the Bible 
Society, and a number — from twelve to twenty — 
besides, are prominently active, and devoted to the 
cause of Christ. We have been perfectly unanimous 
in the choice of trustees and elders, and in all else 
we have done and now in the choice of a pastor." 

"New Haven, Dec. 1, 1828. 

"Dear Brother, — It is a great question for you 
to decide : for New York is a great city, and much 
is to be done there ; and the right men are needed 
to do it. I cannot bear to think that Connecticut 
should be so drained of her best ministers as she 
has been. Still I have disinterestedness enough to 
see and to feel the importance of the present effort 
in New York. So much of the religious well-being 
of our whole country depends on that city, that 
when I think of this opportunity to plant an efficient 
Connecticut man there, and this, also, as auspicious 
to the introduction of others, I am by no means 



138 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

confident it is not your duty to go. I should be 
sorry for Hartford and for Connecticut ; but I should 
be glad for New York. Brother, be in that city as 
much as I have been the last few years, and hear 
the Dutch and the Scotch and the triangular preach- 
ers, and you would feel, not that things are as bad 
as in Boston, but as bad as an inefficient ministry 
can well cause them to be ; while there is immeasu- 
rably more hope of making them better. 

" Yours as ever, 

"N. W. Taylok." 

"New York, Dec. 7, 1828. 

u My dear Brother, — By the time you have had 
three or four more invitations to leave either your 
present or any future charge, you will have found 
that the trial of deciding is more than a balance for 
the honor of receiving them. I sincerely sympa- 
thize with you, and pray that God may sustain as 
well as guide you. If you form your purpose to 
take part with us in this city, you must have the 
spirit and firmness of a martyr, or you can never 
break from the bonds which now hold you. It would 
be rash in me to say that it is your duty to leave 
your people, and cruel to allure you to a field of 
more arduous labor. Believe me, dear brother, 
there is no allurement except the sound of the Great 
Shepherd's voice, and the bleating of his famished 
flock. I could never intimate a thought to a young 
man to take a station in this populous city. Of all 
the men who were in the ministry when I came to 
this city, and of all denominations, but three remain ! 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 139 

You are prepared for labor, and I think will weather 
the storm, and with more comfort and usefulness 
than any of us who are here. The field is most 
inviting for labor, and nothing else. Peace, do- 
mestic comfort, sweet society, dwell anywhere 
rather than in great cities. You will come to 
brethren in the ministry who love you. The con- 
gregation to which you are called are exposed in 
more ways than are known to themselves ; and I 
think they need you. If you c admit the principle 
of removal/ when will you remove if not now ? 
and where, if not to New York? But wisdom is 
with you. If you come, you will, in my judgment, 
act unwisely to leave the matter to the decision of 
any but your own conscience. The Lord direct you, 
and send you to us in the fulness of the blessing of 
the gospel of peace ! 

" Your affectionate brother, 

"Gakdiner Speing. 

" Mr. Joel Hawes." 

* 

After consultation and a deliberate weighing of 
the matter, the call was declined ; only, however, 
after a few weeks, to be more urgently renewed. The 
circumstances which led to this renewal are lucidly 
given in the following characteristic letter : — 

"You will soon learn that the Bowery Church 
have renewed their unanimous call to you as their 
pastor elect. The circumstances, antecedents, and 
adjuncts of that singular measure will also be made 
known to you in extenso. The object of this letter 



140 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

is, officially, to say a few things that may influence 
you to think it duty not to renew your negative. 

" 1. You seem to be the only man in whom they 

can agree. Mr. B and Dr. E have both been 

c pitted and perilled ' by the two parties that had 
previously grown into being, as their respective favor- 
ites. F — ism was the talismanic rallying-word. The 
majority numerically, and much more mentally and 
pecuniarily, was against them by handsome odds. 
The line was drawn, and the feelings on one side 
were as resolved as on the other. ... A happy prop- 
osition was made to renew their previous call. This 
was considered and carried with little debate, with 
no reluctance, with perfect equanimity ; and so the 
two sticks became one in the hand of Jehovah. 

" 2. I think that your location there is just what 
they deeply and permanently need. I know you 
perhaps better than you suppose. I know them 
also ; and such is my conviction. 

" 3. The confidence of the contiguous and allied 
churches and their pastors would be consulted and 
gratified by your translation. You have been tried : 
your sentiments are known, and your age and stand- 
ing are respected. 

" 4. If ever you go from H , now, it seems, 

is the time, and this the place. Twelve years past 
are a just balance of a lifetime uncertainly to come. 
If you should be spared to labor twelve years with 
us, your ministry would, I trust, have told its noble 
average of usefulness in comparison with the ordi- 
nary allotments of the best. But you may, favente 
Deo, live and labor, and enlarge in beneficence, for 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 141 

twenty years yet, — i.e., till 1850, — in our large, in- 
fluential, and very necessitous city. Besides, — 

" 5. New England, and especially Hartford, is in 
a sort subdued and occupied. Here we are compar- 
ative savages, — at least, many of our Gothamites ; 
and this consideration, levity apart, is, you will own, 
a very powerful one with a minister of a Master 
who came emphatically ' to call sinners to repent- 
ance.' 

" I have thus rather hastily, as much employed, 
sketched my own view of the matter, and the view, 
I doubt not, of all the best judges among us whom 
you would care to consult. Many prayers will be 
offered that your judgment may be directed by the 
Great Head as his infallibility prefers. I need not 
say that you must decide for yourself at last, unin- 
fluenced by tears, feelings, or partial views; and 
may the Lord be with you, and illustrate the path of 
duty, and guide you with his strength to run in it ! 

" Excuse the freedom of your affectionate brother 
in Christ, and in the patience and hope of his 
glorious kingdom. " Sam. H. Cox. 

" Rev. Joel Hawes, Hartford, Conn." 

In reference to the meeting referred to in this 
letter, another writes, "It was large ; and it was 
soon apparent that a very unhappy state of 

feeling existed. Mr. B and Dr. E were 

nominated ; then merits discussed. Crimination 
and recrimination of each other ensued. Both par- 
ties anticipated success. Nine o'clock arrived, and 
the excitement had risen to a high pitch. Never 



142 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

did I witness such a scene. Men who had always 
acted shoulder to shoulder as soldiers of the cross, 
men who had for years been of one heart and mind, 
Christians of colonizing principles and of the spirit 
of the age, angry, reproachful, accusing and accused, 
presented to a calm observer a picture deplorable to 
the last degree. I could not keep my seat, nor re- 
frain from uttering sentiments the occasion inspired. 
I spoke of the schism, — its effect upon the congre- 
gation, upon the colonizing plan in general, upon 
Christians throughout the country ; stated that the 
choice of either of the candidates proposed was to 
be deprecated, as it would divide the church, and 
create heart-burnings that would endure for a gener- 
ation ; that it were wise to retire both nominations ; 
that there was a man in the country who would 
unite all hearts ; that, if he knew the precise situa- 
tion of their affairs, he would undoubtedly accept 
their renewed call. Your name was mentioned. Its 
annunciation was like electricity throughout the 
assembly. The leaders of each side rose one after 
another ; expressed the greatest regret at the pre- 
vious occurrences, and their willingness to withdraw 
the nominations simultaneously. It was done. You 
were nominated, and chosen vivd voce, by acclama- 
tion almost, after solemn prayer. The whole assem- 
bly sang, standing, 6 Blest be the tie that binds.' 
Cordial greetings, mutual congratulations, and tears, 
succeeded. I never witnessed such a scene. 

a My dear sir, if there was ever an indication 
of a field of usefulness, here it is. The temporal 
salvation of the Bowery Church depends, under 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 143 

God, on you : the colonizing system is absolutely 
connected with your coming here. I pray you to 
reconsider your resolution ; act from your own 
impulses and convictions ; come and be the beloved 
minister of this now-united people. There are six 
thousand merchants' clerks in this city, wandering 
from church to church, and wanting a shepherd. If 
you had been at the meeting, you would have ac- 
cepted the invitation on the spot. May God lead you 
to a proper determination ! On Saturday, there is to 
be a special fast on the occasion. Adieu, dear sir! 
66 Your affectionate friend, 

"Lewis Tappak." 

This time, a delegation went to Hartford to lay 
the case before the church \ but it was in vain. A 
second call met with the fate of the first. Dr. 
Hawes could not be drawn to New York. 

But could he be allured to Boston ? In the sum- 
mer of 1828, Park-street Church was to be left 
destitute for three months by the absence of its 
pastor, Rev. Edward Beecher. It was a time of a 
good deal of excitement in Boston and vicinity. 
The Unitarian controversy had hardly begun to 
subside. The Old South Church was closed for 
repairs. It was felt that a clear-headed, warm- 
hearted, and strong man was needed in the Park- 
street pulpit. After consultation, a committee pro- 
ceeded to the First Church in Hartford, requesting 
the loan of their pastor for the special and impor- 
tant service. The request, however, was not com- 
plied with. 



144 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

In February , 1831, the same church, with great 
unanimity, voted to extend a call to Dr. Hawes to 
become their pastor; and the society, with equal 
unanimity, concurred in the vote. The call was com- 
mitted to Deacon Henry Hill and John Dane, Esq., 
who proceeded to Hartford with letters to Dr. 
Hawes from Dr. Enoch Pond and others. 

"I am aware," writes Dr. Pond, "that the call 
will throw you into circumstances of severe trial. 
Your dear people will weigh very heavily on your 
heart; but I am satisfied that your judgment (and 
may I not say your conscience ?) will be in favor of 
the removal. 

" Allow me to say in the outset, you must settle 
the question in your own mind first. Your neighbor- 
ing ministers could not be expected to tell you that 
they thought you ought to go : this would be as 
bad as saying they wished to get rid of you. You 
must be dismissed by a council ; but you must be 
able to say, ' My conscience tells me I must go.' You 
are needed in this region more than you can be well 
aware of." 

"Boston, March 10, 1831. 

"My dear Brother ', — I need not express to 
you, who know my affectionate confidence in you, 
the great pleasure it would give me to have you 
associated with ourselves, the ministers of Boston, 
who on this subject are all animated by the same 
feelings toward you. Direct advice is not what 
you need; but I submit for your consideration, as 
aids in the formation of your opinion, the following 
suggestions in favor of the affirmative : — 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 145 

" 1. The first ten or fifteen years of a man's 
life, who thinks and studies and writes, carry him 
over the whole field of doctrinal theology, and ex- 
haust the intense stimulus of novelty in the fresh 
investigation of subjects. 

" 2. In the same time are exhausted all the 
various topics of practical and experimental preach- 
ing, and, what- is worse, all the diversified shades 
of thought, and modes of address, in the pungent 
application of truth. All his thoughts, opinions, and 
references have been exhausted on his people. 

" 3. The last half of his life, he must run a race 
with himself in his first half, without the freshness 
of investigation and the stimulus of new acquisition, 
and with the listlessness inseparable from an old 
track in the presence of the same congregation, 
himself conscious that they are conscious of having 
heard it all before. 

" 4. There is no remedy for the listlessness inci- 
dent to this second time over, but a vigor of mind 
and resolution which shall enable a man, as it were, 
to throw all his sermons into the crucible, and melt 
them up, and run them into a new mould ; a vigor 
which few possess, and the want of which is the 
reason why so many ministers who never remove 
come to a stand in respect to improvement and 
vigorous action so early, and become rusty and 
indolent and impotent. 

" 5. Though the grace of God can and sometimes 
does counteract these impediments, and make a min- 
ister's last clays as useful as his morning and meri- 
dian, I do not think it common, or that greater good 



146 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

might not with more probability have been done by 
the first half of another minister's life who shall 
succeed. He comes fresh to the work, and rejoices 
to run a race. His people hear him as a new 
preacher, whose tones, and modes of thinking, are 
different and original. 

" 6. In the mean time, the second half of a minis- 
ister's life, may, by a removal, if he goes to new and 
high responsibilities, be brought under a stimulus as 
efficacious as the first, if he avails himself of past 
studies and experience on a new field, and revises 
and perfects, with a delightful stimulus, what at 
home he could not preach but with discouragement. 

" 7. A removal gives to a minister a great in- 
crease of time which can be appropriated to useful 
and very necessary public efforts, — by writing for 
periodicals, and other things which the peculiar state 
of the Church demands. This latter is a great desid- 
eratum, where all must work, and none have leisure. 
I have not done much, and fear I never shall ; but I 
have done ten times as much as I should at Litch- 
field all my days, and hope to do some more yet. 

"It is but candid that I state my thoughts on the 
other side. I have weighed every circumstance. 

" 1. The unanimity and attachment of your peo- 
ple, and your influence among them. But this, I 
am convinced, is a reason for a removal : for, where 
there is so great confidence in a minister, they will 
lie with all their weight on him ; and it is next 
to impossible to stimulate them to take care of 
themselves. My Litchfield congregation were well- 
nigh ruined in this way. 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 147 

" 2. Your influence as a leader in the State has 
held me more in doubt than any thing. But I have 
learned that human nature lusteth to envy ; that 
it is not bes£ any one man should be the first 
man for a great length of time ; that there can be 
but one at a time ; and, when he is removed, another 
will rise. I think, in this view, my longer continu- 
ance in Connecticut might have done as much harm 
as good. There is a sort of State pride which is 
vexed in having useful men called away ; but that 
is a trifle not to be minded. No State ever was, or 
ever will be, impoverished by giving. Besides, the 
cause is one ; and we should go where our Captain 
chooses to call and station us. The point which will 
press hardest, though possibly of the least real weight 
in the great scale, may be the present state of your 
people ; but, if it is your duty to remove in reference 
to your probable usefulness for the remainder of your 
life, the incidents of a few months can hardly be 
sufficient to turn the scales. 

" Thus I have given you a transcript of my 
thoughts, not in the form of argument or advice, 
but as matters of fact, and the result of my own 
observation and experience. If I were to live life 
over again, I should choose to do in respect to re- 
movals as I have done. And I cannot resist the 
persuasion that your moral momentum in this world 
would be greatly increased by a removal. In respect 
to Park Street, there is nothing, in my opinion, in the 
past or present condition, which you have occasion 
to fear, but much which makes it immensely impor- 
tant that such a one as you should take the helm, 



148 LIFE OF DR. IIAWES. 

and makes it dangerous that almost any one whom 
they may be likely to obtain should take it. 

" It is of very great consequence to the cause 
here that Park Street be sustained in her relative 
strength and eminence. I have no doubt that you 
would do it with great ease and comfort ; and they 
need a man of age and character and decision. 

"After all, the question turns, in my opinion, on 
your own choice and feelings, and sense of duty. If 
you are willing to come, would, on the whole, choose 
to come, can be satisfied on the point of right and 
duty, and then be so much interested as to be willing 
to take on yourself the responsibility of deciding 
the question by a kind but frank avowal of your 
opinion and wishes, — which, though it may excite 
a momentary vexation, will produce no permanent 
alienation, and will secure a ready consent to your 
dismission, — then I think you had better remove. 
" Affectionately yours, 

"Lyman Beecher." 

" Andover, 20th March, 1831. — Sunday Evening. 

"My dear Brother, — Prof. E has read your 

letter to me. If the question were one which in 
any measure could be made to turn on my personal 
wishes, I should know what to say at once ; and that 
would be, Come. But you would not accept an 
opinion on this ground ; nor should I dare to give 
one. 

" The wants of Park Street and of Boston I know: 
the entire state of things in Hartford I do not know. 
The only question which you wish to be decided 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 149 

is, where can you be most useful ? For the rest, 
you 6 count not your own life dear/ 

" In general, a minister has seen the best of his 
days in some ten or twelve years. Faithfulness 
makes some enemies among the carnal ; his services 
begin to want the charm of novelty ; some of his 
earliest and best friends die ; he himself loses a part 
of his interest that he once felt, when he had a 
character to establish ; he wants more time for 
study ; his vigor is impaired, for active service ; and 
many other things go into the account in making 
up the summary named above. Some of these 
things must be true of you, unless you are more 
than human ; how many, it is not in my power to 
say. 

" Cceteris paribus, he can do more good by chan- 
ging his situation. But there are times, and there 
are places, when and where his influence cannot be 
withdrawn without a heavy blow to the churches 
around him. Is not that the case with you ? I am 
inclined to think so ; indeed, I must fully believe it : 
and the only compensation I can make out is, that 
you might have a wider influence still on the Church 
at large by removing to Boston. That this is the 
central point of pastoral influence in New England 
needs not to be'proved. A great work is to be done : 
who can do it ? 

" As to your labors in Boston, they would be 
heavy, perpetual, exhausting.. Yet }^ou would get 
more vacation, with good will, than in Connecticut : 
you might get more help. But that killing church ! 
— that seventy feet high, and ninety feet long, and 



150 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

seventy-five wide church ! After all, not much, if 
any, worse than your own at Hartford. 

" You see, I am not in a condition to judge well 
of the question. I can only suggest general princi- 
ples. On these I feel obliged to say that your 
removal is expedient. I know not how to avoid 
this conclusion. I am obliged to believe that the 
sphere of action and usefulness is wider in Boston; 
and that the difficulty of supplying that place, unless 
you come, is all but an impossibility. 

" Take good care not to break with your people. 
If you propose a council from a distance, you must 
not choose Massachusetts men ; for they will be 
suspected of partiality. If your personal desires in- 
cline you to stay, tell the people so ; but present to 
them the question of Christian duty. I know how 
they will decide it ; but I trust still that there will 
be magnanimity enough among them to agree to a 
mutual council. 

" The whole business will be one of trial and dis- 
tress. Prepare for it ; and prepare to be slandered, 
&c, as to your motives, and all that kind of affairs. 
When you are satisfied as to duty, that decides the 
matter : let all the rest go where it may. 

" Such a question can be decided only by looking 
upward. c If any man lack wisdom, let him ask 
of God,' is something real, practical, veritable. I 
commend you to this mode of deciding above any 
and all others. Peace be with thee ! 

" Sincerely and affectionately yours, 

"M. Stuart." 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 151 

The call to Park Street, as was foreseen, subjected 
Dr. Hawes to a very severe trial. His affection for 
his people was on one side, and was very strong ; 
but his conscience, and desire to do right, caused him 
to hesitate. After ten weeks' deliberation, the call 
was declined. 

A little more than a year later, the church in Park 
Street, by an almost unanimous vote, renewed the 
call, and appointed Judge Hubbard, Deacon Nathaniel 
Willis, and William T. Eustis, Esq., a committee to 
present it. They also appointed a delegation to con- 
fer with the church at Hartford on the subject. 
Judge Hubbard wrote, " If we did not believe our 
case to be a very strong one, we should not have 
taken the liberty to repeat the call ; and we did not 
do it without the hearty concurrence of a distin- 
guished minister of Christ, who thought the path of 
duty clear, as well for yourself as for us." 

The " distinguished minister " was Dr. Beecher. 
He was about leaving Boston for Lane Seminary, at 
Cincinnati ; and he was exceedingly desirous that 
Dr. Hawes should be established in the Athens of 
America. All the Congregational ministers of the 
city felt the same. Rev. Dr. Blagden, then the 
young pastor of Old South, wrote, " Boston needs 
you, particularly Park Street." How Dr. Hawes 
felt under this repeated pressure is seen by the follow- 
ing extract from a letter written to Dr. Beecher : — 

" You made out a very strong case ; and, for a time, 
I felt it deeply : but the question of duty is not so 
clear as to give me the requisite courage to meet the 
difficulties which I must encounter if I attempt a 



152 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

removal. So far as I am cone erne d, I wish to have 
no will in the case." 

The result was as before, — a negative answer. He 
saw strong reasons for going to Boston, but no suf- 
ficiently strong ones for leaving Hartford. It was 
even more difficult to decide affirmatively now than 
the year before. His people had generously granted 
him a release from labor for live months, supplying 
the pulpit meanwhile, and, at the same time, meet- 
ing his expenses. They had invested more of confi- 
dence and affection in him, and he more in them. 
The union was closer and the bond stronger than 
ever. He never saw occasion to regret this decision. 

The following year, a professorship of divinity in 
a Western college was offered him. In respect to 
this opening, a ministerial brother says, " That 
you would succeed well as a professor of divinity, I 
have no doubt ; but preaching is that to which you 
are peculiarly adapted." 

During the five or six years following, Dr. Hawes 
received and declined urgent calls from the First 
Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, N.Y., the First Pres- 
byterian Church in Utica, N.Y., the First Reformed 
Dutch Church in Philadelphia, and the Richmond- 
street Church in Providence, the latter very earnestly 
repeating its invitation. 

Meantime, what was the feeling at Hartford ? 
What did his people think of these various attempts 
to draw away from them their minister ? A single 
letter (anonymous), received by Dr. Hawes while 
considering the call from New York, will cast some 
light on the subject : — 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 153 

"Hartford, Dec. 11, 1828. 
"To the Rev. Joel Hawes. 

66 Sir, — As a member of the First Church and So- 
ciety under your pastoral care, and as a personal 
friend, I take the liberty of addressing you on a 
subject deeply interesting to yourself and the peo- 
ple of your charge, and in which the honor and 
prosperity of religion are concerned ; and, however 
plainly it may be necessary for me to speak, you 
will, clear sir, do me the justice to believe that I 
speak the language of attachment to yourself and 
to the cause of religion. 

" Your people have been informed that you have 
been invited to the pastoral care of a church in New 
York. But they do not believe that you have the 
least intention of leaving them. I say this advisedly. 
They think they have such a strong hold upon you, 
that they would as soon expect you to cut off a right 
hand as to think of it. This is the general impres- 
sion, and it has been mine until yesterday. I was 
then informed that you had said, that, as to the point 
of duty in the case, you were doubtful ; and that you 
had written abroad (as I understood to Andover) for 
advice, and that the opinion of the Andover coun- 
sellors would very much decide your own. I must 
confess I was astonished to hear this, because I did 
suppose, if the case admitted of a doubt, counsel 
and advice would be sought of the clergy and laymen 
in this vicinity, who know the state of our churches 
better than the gentlemen of Andover, and the 
wants of the churches in New York full as well. It 
is, I believe, a notorious fact, that the sentiments of 



154 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

the Andover gentlemen are very latitudinarian on 
the point of the removal of ministers from one 
church to another ; and their opinion and influence 
in this respect are lamented by many of the best 
men in New England, as breaking up the founda- 
tions of ecclesiastical order, destroying the useful- 
ness and influence of ministers, and disturbing the 
peace of the churches. . . . On the supposition that 
you have written abroad for advice, I make the fol- 
lowing remarks : — 

a In regard to yourself and people. You are pleas- 
antly situated here, in the capital of Connecticut, as 
pastor of the most ancient, respectable, and wealthy 
society ; as the successor of Hooker, Haynes, and 
Strong, who have lived and died with their people. 
In this city you have acquired a great influence over 
the young men, — those whom you justly call the 
hope of the church and the country. Leaving the 
place, this influence is lost ; and the consequences 
which may follow I will not predict. I will not in- 
sult your feelings by saying that a three-thousand- 
dollar salary can have any influence in your decis- 
ion of this question. I cannot believe that such an 
unworthy motive would operate on you ; because I 
know, and you know, that, if you regard a larger 
salary than you now have as necessary, your people 
would cheerfully give it. All who wish to lower the 
standard of religion would rejoice to have you gone, 
and your place supplied by a preacher of smooth 
things ; and there are, it need not be concealed, 
some persons of character, influence, and wealth, 
in your society, who, if we were destitute, would 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 155 

undoubtedly do all in their power to procure such a 
preacher. 

" The interests of the church in Hartford are as 
important as in New York, whatever some gentle- 
men in that city may think. There are there many 
clergymen of eminence for piety and talents, who 
will continue to occupy the stations they now pos- 
sess. You now exert a much greater influence in 
Connecticut than you can expect to exercise in New 
York. Hartford is looked up to for an example of 
piety and sound doctrine ; but let us have a smooth- 
tongued, fashionable modern preacher, who does not 
preach the distinguishing doctrines of the Bible, and 
what a baneful influence will it exert on the churches 
in this State ! 

"So far as I can learn, there is nothing peculiar in 
the situation of the society in New York to which 
you are called (and of this I have taken particular 
pains to inquire) that would not exist in every 
new society which might happen to be formed 
in any populous city. Follow the principle con- 
tended for, and where does it lead ? Why, when- 
ever a new society is formed in any large city, the 
members of it have only to select a minister from 
an old, established society, offer a liberal salary, and 
hold out the inducement of greater usefulness, and 
thus dissolve the connection, however endearing, 
which exists between pastor and people. 

" There is one consideration I will suggest which 
concerns the clergy particularly. The principle 
contended for, of leaving a people because a man 
may hope or believe he may do more good else- 



156 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

where, is one which will be most pernicious to the 
temporal wants of the clergy, and will lower their 
characters amazingly in the view of their people, and 
consequently dishonor religion. 

" Establish this principle, and every society will 
claim the right, and very properly, to dismiss their 
minister when they please. If a parish settle a young 
man who proves not equal to their hopes, — why, 
they may tell him to go when they please ; and they 
will do so. This evil is one of vast magnitude ; it 
goes far beyond the present generation : and, if your 
example is to sanction it, your brethren of the clergy 
will feel and lament its effects for years to come. 

" Let the principle be established, and no church 
will settle a minister, but hire him by the year. All 
that attachment and kindly feeling which now so 
pleasantly exist between pastor and people will be 
annihilated. Churches will be kept in constant tur- 
moil, and in such a state of feeling, it cannot be ex- 
pected that the blessing of Heaven will descend upon 
them. They will lose that respect and veneration 
for the clergy for which the people of New England 
have ever been distinguished, and will view the pas- 
toral office as one of mere bargain and sale. 

"Among other considerations, I would ask your 
serious attention to one or two : — 

"1. The immediate effect which your removal 
would produce upon the feelings of your society. 
I venture to say, sir, you cannot sufficiently realize 
the excitement, the angry feeling, the alienation of 
friendship and good will, which would follow. It is 
painful even to allude to such results ; but rely upon 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 157 

it, sir, they are inevitable. The scenes at Abington 
cannot be obliterated from your memory. Would 
you wish to see them acted over in your own society, 
and all for a mere possibility of doing more good in 
New York ? 

" 2. At your settlement, you entered into a solemn 
relation with your people. They have felt themselves 
bound to provide for you liberally : they have felt a 
desire to do this, because they cherished a sincere 
attachment for you ; and they felt encouraged to do 
this by the repeated assurances you have given them 
from the pulpit. When speaking of the history of 
this church and people, you have frequently told us 
that all the pastors of the church, from Hooker to 
the lamented Strong, lived and. died with them. 
This fact you have always spoken of as alike honor- 
able to pastors and people ; and you have told us that 
you meant to sustain the relation as they had, and 
mingle your dust with that of your people. 

u I might allude to the scattering of your flock if 
they were left without a shepherd, because they will 
not be so well united in any other pastor as they are 
in you ; I might allude to various other topics : but 
time does not allow. My remarks have been hastily 
made ; but I felt impelled by a sense of duty to 
make them, by a personal regard and attachment 
to yourself, and by a wish to preserve the peace and 
harmony of this church and people. 

" Sir, I cannot, I will not, think you can so far 
mistake the path of duty, which it would seem the 
finger of God has marked out for you, as to believe 
you can harbor a single secret wish to leave the 



158 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

people of your charge to go to a land of stran- 
gers. 

" If I am correctly informed, the New- York gentle- 
men have managed in a most disengenuous, un- 
handsome manner in regard to this society, by 
forwarding a statement of their side of the question 
to Andover previous to their coming here, in order 
to forestall the opinion of the gentlemen there to 
whom you have probably written for advice. Per- 
haps my information may be incorrect : I would hope 
it was." 

When, in 1839, there was a meeting of the Fac- 
ulty of Yale College for considering the question 
of a candidate for the professorship of pastoral theol- 
ogy, Dr. Hawes was the first man proposed. The 
reasons which prevented his election are stated by 
Prof. Goodrich in a letter to his brother, a member 
of Dr. Hawes' s church in Hartford : — 

" The name of Dr. Hawes was first mentioned ; and 
the question went round, c Can he be taken from 
Hartford ? ' Mr. Silliman and others, the older of 
our officers, said decidedly, ' We cannot do it. Con- 
sidering the peculiar relations of New Haven and 
Hartford, and the dependence of this college on 
the good will of the Hartford churches, it is too 
hazardous a course for us to propose.' Highly as Dr. 
Hawes was prized, valuable as his labors had been 
found here repeatedly in times of revival, agreeable 
as he would personally be to all or each of the Fac- 
ulties, excellent as his influence would be on the 
religious state of both the institutions, the conclu- 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 159 

sion was nearly or quite unanimous, that the Facul- 
ties ought not to take the responsibility of such a 
nomination. 

" At Commencement, as the clergy came in from 
different quarters, the sentiment seemed to be this : 
6 Dr. Hawes fills one of the most important stations 
in the ministry, if not the most important, to be 
found in the United States. He fills it perfectly, 
and spreads himself throughout the whole sphere 
of his influence with a power and efficacy which can 
be surpassed by no one, and equalled by few.' . . . 
Mr. Daggett of Hartford said, c I don't understand 
your policy in talking of Dr. Hawes. He is the van- 
guard of New Haven. He is doing a great, very 
great work for you now. You need him where he 
is, while we cannot think of parting with him at 
Hartford.' " 

These events have a peculiar significance in the 
life of Dr. Hawes. They disclose the high esteem 
in which he was held in other parts of the country 
as well as at home. They show that he was regarded 
as qualified for other important stations as well as 
for the pastoral office. These coveting churches and 
institutions were among the foremost in the intelli- 
gent appreciation of pulpit and pastoral power and 
excellence : some of them were in the most popu- 
lous and affluent cities of the land. Those who ap- 
pear as eulogists are the most competent judges. 
Extracts have been more freely made from their 
letters because they make a felicitous part of 
the biography; because they furnish graphic pic- 



160 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

tures of some of the leading theological and eccle- 
siastical men then on the stage ; and because of 
the views which they contain on the much-mooted 
and sometimes difficult question of ministerial re- 
movals. 

The frequency of revivals in the First Church in 
Hartford caused its pastor to be much sought after 
for occasional preaching in times of special religious 
interest in other churches, and at what were then 
called " four-days' meetings." Though he had some 
doubt respecting the influence of these meetings, 
yet he frequently engaged in them by assisting a 
neighboring minister. The principle of these special 
services is ancient ; but the application in this par- 
ticular form is somewhat recent. The great Jewish 
festivals were established by divine appointment 
under the same law of increased effect from the con- 
tinuous use of the means. The Lental and other 
special services in the Eomish and Episcopal Church- 
es are on the same principle. They look rather 
to the growth of piety within the Church than to the 
creation of a new divine life outside of it. But 
these special labors aimed mainly, through the 
quickening of Christian life in the spirit of prayer 
and labor, at the conversion of those not Christians. 

There is a divine philosophy here, a fitness of 
means to ends ; and the objection, that the succes- 
sion of so many sermons is like " several cartridges 
in a cannon," is a figure without analogy or force. 
It is rather like those rapid discharges, which, leav- 
ing no time for repairing the breach made in the ene- 
my's walls, soonest batter clown the fortress. It is 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. . 161 

true, there were some spurious couversions at these 
meetings ; and so there are on all revival occasions. 
The counterfeit often mingles with the genuine cur- 
rency, but does not make it the less genuine. The 
best trees always produce more blossoms than fruit ; 
but the fruit is fruit, notwithstanding the blossoms 
that fade and fall. 

In December, 1833, Dr. Hawes was invited to as- 
sist a brother-minister in Boston on one of these oc- 
casions. He writes, — 

" My dear Wife, — I arrived about three o'clock 
yesterday afternoon. Preached last evening and this 
morning:, but to rather thin audiences. Just as I 
got here, a most furious north-easter began to blow, 
and has continued with unabated violence up to this 
time. It is, -this evening, beginning to snow; and 
will probably clear off to-morrow, bitterly cold. 
This, you know, is the course of such things in this 
part of the country. But, in the expectation that I 
shall be detained, I wish that some provision may be 
made for the supply of my pulpit. I am glad that I 
am here ; though, from present appearances, I fear 
that I shall not be able to accomplish much good. 
But I shall have seen the brethren, learned some 
things which I wish to know about matters here, 
and come home better prepared and more disposed 
to labor among my own people than ever. I hope 
and feel that the Lord is preparing the way to re- 
vive his work there. I wish all who hope they are 
Christians to view the subject in this light, and go to 
work accordingly." 



162 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

In March; 1834, he writes from Salem, — 

" My dear Louisa, — I am here in tolerable health, 
— mostly alone in labor, and hard at work. The 
aspect of the assemblies is, on the whole, good ; 
though there is not so much nor so deep seriousness 
as I hoped to find when I left home. I trust, how- 
ever, that the meeting will do good. The appear- 
ance, yesterday afternoon and last evening, was 
solemn ; and Mr. Williams thinks that deep impres- 
sions were made. Still the audiences here are not 
such as I am accustomed to see in Hartford. They 
are composed chiefly of the lower classes, and a very 
large proportion are females. The men are sadly 
drawn off to Unitarianism ; or are so engrossed in 
other things, that they can with difficulty be brought 
to attend to religion. I pity my brethren here ; 
and, if I can do any thing to help them, I shall be 
happy." 

"New Hayex, March 28, 1835. 

" My dear Wife, — I have been busily employed 
this week in the best work this world affords ; and 
I need not say that it has been very pleasant to me. 
The revival is going on in college in a silent and 
most interesting manner. It is not so powerful as 
has sometimes been witnessed here ; but every day 
we hear of some who hope they have given them- 
selves to the Lord. Among them, it will gratify 
Mary to hear, is Caleb Strong, son of Lewis Strong 
of Northampton. I think she was formerly ac- 
quainted with him at Mrs. Chester's. He appears 
very happy, and I hope will prove himself a true 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 163 

convert. How many have indulged hope I am not 
informed, but a very goodly number ; and present 
appearances are as favorable as they have been at 
any time. . . . 

" I am disappointed in not having a letter from 
Mary. Perhaps it will come this morning. Love 
to her and to Erskine. The Lord bless and keep 
you all ! 

" Yours as ever, 

"J. Hawes." 



CHAPTER IX. 

Marriage of his Daughter. — Accompanies her to her Missionary Home- 
— Visits with Dr. Anderson the Stations in the Levant. — Return. — 
Death of Mrs. Van Lennep. 

TN 1843, Mary, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. 
-L Hawes, was married to the Rev. Henry J. Van 
Lennep. He was a member of the Armenian 
mission in Turkey under the direction of the 
American Board, and a native of Smyrna. He had 
been educated in this country for Christian work in 
his own. 

Mary Hawes was a' young woman of high culture ; 
very lovely, and loving in her disposition ; and ear- 
nestly devoted to her Saviour. Her connection 
with Mr. Yan Lennep destined her to the mission- 
ary work in a foreign field. She had no reluctance 
to this except what arose from the pain of leaving 
her home, her friends, and her native land. It ne- 
cessitated a long, perhaps a final, separation from 
all these ; but she did not hesitate. J 

To the parents, the bereavement would be almost 
greater than to the child. Their only surviving 
daughter, she had been educated with particular 
carefulness and affection, and was their delight; 

164 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 165 

but she had also been consecrated to God in the 
covenant^ and with no stipulation that she should 
serve him in this land. To the father, the trial was, 
at first, almost more than he could submit to : but 
when he heard the voice, and knew that it was 
God's, he " clave the wood, and took the fire and the 
knife ; and they went both of them together unto 
the place of which God had told him." There he 
heard another voice, saying unto him, " Now I know 
that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not with- 
held thy daughter, thine only daughter, from me." 

"If Mary is happy and useful," said the more 
easily-yielding mother, " I shall not be greatly 
troubled about other things." Thus were they 
comforted in their sorrow. 

Mr. and Mrs. Yan Lennep were to sail for Smyrna 
in the autumn. Dr. Anderson, one of the secretaries 
of the American Board, had been appointed by the 
Prudential Committee to visit the stations on the 
Mediterranean and Black Seas. Dr. Hawes, after 
thirteen years, conceived the idea of another respite 
from labor, and of accompanying his daughter to 
her new home. Finding that he should have the 
company of Dr. Anderson, and, further, that he might 
be of some service to the Board, he decided on the 
expedition. The committee " wrote letters by them 
unto the brethren ; " and they went forth' like Paul 
and Barnabas from the council at Jerusalem, confer- 
ring with the missionaries, and " confirming the 
churches." 

The following extracts from a letter written by 
Dr. Hawes to his people just before sailing disclose 



166 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

his feelings on the occasion of a second prolonged 
absence from them : — 

" Boston, Oct. 10, 1843. 
" To the Beloved People of my Charge. 

" Brethren and Friends, — It would have been a 
great satisfaction to nie,had circumstances permitted, 
to express to you in person some of the thoughts and 
feelings which now fill my heart in the prospect of 
being absent from you several months. But I had 
not decided in my own mind, when I left the city, 
that I should not return to you this week ; indeed, 
it was rather my expectation that I should : and 
it was only to-day that I fully made up my mind 
that I should be in the way of my duty by taking 
the contemplated voyage to the Mediterranean. 
And now, as but a few hours remain before the 
vessel sails which is to bear me away from these 
much-loved shores, I can only snatch a few moments, 
in the midst of the hurry and fatigue of preparation, to 
express to you the grateful sense I entertain of the 
kindness you have always shown me as your minis- 
ter, and my fervent prayer that the best of Heaven's 
blessings may ever rest upon the congregation and 
all the families and individuals connected with it. 
My heart is deeply affected with the kind and 
generous manner in which you treated my request ; 
and those who differed from me in opinion in ref- 
lation to this matter did it with so much candor 
and good feeling, that my heart is drawn to them 
with renewed affection and esteem. I cannot now, 
as I would if I were present, state all the reasons that 
have influenced me to the step I have taken. I can 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 167 

only say, that, while other reasons have concurred, 
only this has decided me, — the hope that I may do 
good and get good by taking the tour, and return 
invigorated and confirmed in health to serve you 
better, and do more to advance the cause of our 
common Lord. But the hour for embarking has 
come ; and I can only add in the words of the 
apostle, c Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect ; 
be of good comfort ; be of one mind ; live in peace. 
And the Gocl of love and peace shall be with you.' 
" Your affectionate friend and pastor, 

"J. Hawes." 

His letters and journal will keep us in pleasant 
intercourse with him in his tour, and make us not 
only travelling-companions, but enable us to see 
with his eyes, and to hear with his ears. On the 
bark " Stamboul," Nov. 2, he writes, — 

" My dear Wife, — As we are approaching Gib- 
raltar, where we expect to find means of convey- 
ing letters to America, I gladly embrace the oppor- 
tunity to write you. We have, on the whole, had, 
thus far, a prosperous voyage ; though last Sabbath, 
while off the Western Islands, we encountered a 
severe gale, which lasted about twenty-four hours. 
I have heard of the waves running mountain-high, 
but never saw them before. The sea was lashed 
into a perfect fury. We were, however, in little 
danger, having sea-room enough; though we all 
suffered excessively from the tossing of the ship and 
from sea-sickness. How I fared, Mary, I presume, 



168 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

will tell you. She makes a fine sailor. She was 
sick a few days after leaving Boston ; but she soon 
recovered, and has since been in fine health and 
spirits. She says she is perfectly happy, except in 
leaving home. Dear child ! I hope she is going to 
do good in her future home : if not, the sacrifice 
will indeed be to us a severe one, and without any 
compensation. 

" Our home-affairs I must leave entirely to you. 
Bonny, I hope, is disposed of. Any advice you may 
need about temporalities, you will do well to seek 
of Mr. Parsons or Judge Williams ; to whom I wish 
you to express my most affectionate regards. I 
trust you have before this set the young people to 
writing that long common letter. All may not be 
able to write : but all can sign their names ; and this 
I hope most of them will at least be induced to do. 
It will cheer my heart to hear from them in this 
way. Give my love to them all." 

From Athens, Dr. Hawes sent a New- Year's ad- 
dress to his people : — 

" I write you in the midst of the ruins of human 
grandeur and human pride. From the room where 
I am sitting, the eye rests on the Acropolis, covered 
with the remains of altars, monuments, and temples, 
once the glory of Athens, and still the wonder of 
the world. At a little distance, separated by a 
valley, is the Areopagus, or Mars' Hill, where the 
apostle Paul, eighteen hundred years ago, delivered 
that admirable discourse recorded in the seventeenth 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 169 

chapter of the Acts ; and around, on every side, 
are monuments broken by the hand of violence, or 
wasted by the wear of time, reminding me that the 
proudest possessions and mightiest works of man 
must perish, and pass away. Indeed, as I walk these 
streets, and survey the scenes around me, I seem to 
hear voices continually saying, c We are gone ; we are 
gone : such is the end of all human glory. 9 

" Eighteen centuries ago, Paul stood on yonder hill, 
surrounded by crowds of living men, the wise, and 
the great ones of Greece. Before him was the city 
in all its splendor, and the temples in all their mag- 
nificence and glory. Now how changed ! The 
mountains, the plains, the sea, visible in the distance, 
remain; but all else is changed and gone. The 
temples are in ruins ; the altars are swept away ; 
the monuments of genius and of art are fallen ; 
the men who then heard the gospel from the lips 
of the apostle, and despised it, are gone ; and the 
numerous generations that have since figured on 
the stage of life, all are gone : but the word of the 
Lord still endures, and will endure forever. It is 
our duty- and our wisdom, dear friends, to embrace 
this word, and to build upon it all our hopes for 
eternity. All else is changeable ; all else will fail 
us in the day of trial : but the word of the Lord, 
loved and obeyed, and trusted in as the foundation 
of our hopes, will bear us through life in peace and 
joy, and raise us in the end to our Father's house 
in heaven, there to love, to adore and praise, when 
earthly things have passed away, and times and 
seasons have ceased to roll." 



170 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

Of what he saw in Athens, he writes further to 
his wife, "I can give no adequate description: I 
can only say that I have realized more than all my 
youthful imagination ever painted of these deeply- 
interesting scenes. I have been overwhelmed with 
emotion, ready again and again to sit down and 
weep and pray. and praise, as I have surveyed the 
grand and beautiful ruins around me." 

From Greece, Drs. Hawes and Anderson went to 
Constantinople, and visited the mission-stations on 
the Black Sea. 

" Constantinople, Jan. 27, 1844. 

" My dear Wife, — I had expected this morning 
to be on the Black Sea, towards Trebizoncl ; but, the 
steamer in which we expected to go being under 
repair, we are detained here till next Tuesday. I 
am not sorry, as it affords me a little leisure to write 
to you. You may be surprised to hear me intimate 
a want of leisure ; but the simple fact is, I never 
spent a winter when I had so little. 

" I went the' other day to witness the worship of 
the howling dervises. I can give you no descrip- 
tion of it. It was awful beyond any thing I ever 
beheld. I was fairly frightened in one part of the 
performance, and could not but feel that they were 
under the influence of satanic agency. The wor- 
ship of the whirling dervises, though not quite so 
terrible, is equally senseless. I witnessed it at 
Broosa, as I had once before here ; and it filled me 
with the most painful emotions. I cannot now go 
into details ; but, if I live to reach home, I am re- 
solved to deliver one lecture on the Turks, in which 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 171 

I will try to describe them physically, intellectually, 
socially, morally, religiously, politically, and pro- 
spectively. In all these respects, I find them a 
strange and most peculiar people. I have had ladies 
spit at me for being seen walking with one of our 
missionaries' wives ; and, the other day, Dr. Ander- 
son and I were stoned by some boys while viewing 
the curiosities." 

On his return from the Black Sea, he writes in his 
journal, Feb. 10, — 

" To-day, went to Bebek to hold a meeting of the 
station on business ; also to see the school, and attend 
the baptism of Mr. Wood's child. 

" Last evening, I called on Mr. Southgate. Mr. 
Nicholayson was present. On the whole, a pleasant 
evening. Mr. Southgate does not please me. His 
course in regard to our brethren here has been 
Jesuitical and bad. 

"Sabbath, Feb. 11, 1844. — Preached this morn- 
ing to a very good audience on 2 Tim. i. 10. As it 
is the last Sabbath I expect to be here, my own 
spirit was more than usually tender and serious ; 
and, when this is the case, I always find that my 
hearers are moved very much in the same propor- 
tion. 

" This afternoon, I addressed a large and extremely 
interesting assembly of Armenians. I am greatly 
interested in these people. They are a fine-looking 
class of men. When I closed, they came around me, 
and took leave with great affection ; taking my hand 
in both theirs, and drawing it to their bosoms, or 
impressing a kiss upon it. I could scarcely refrain 



172 LIFE OF DR. II A WES. 

from weeping, as I felt that I should see them no 
more. 

" Feb. 16. — Final meeting at Mr. Gooclell's. Dr. 
Anderson presided, and all the brethren took part. 
It was tender and solemn. We then dined together, 
and at three o'clock parted." 

"Smyrna, Feb. 27, 1844. 

" My dear Wife, — As I write these words, I am 
hearing a voice that has often made sweet music for 
us. I am now with Mary, and have spent in her 
house a little more than a week very pleasantly, ex- 
cept that I have been somewhat indisposed by a cold. 
They are living very happily in their own hired 
house • but this they are expecting to leave some 
time in May, and to remove to Constantinople. 
The circumstances in the case, Mary will tell you. I 
am quite satisfied with the change. Mary, like her- 
self, has already become warmly attached to Smyrna ; 
but I have no doubt, that, in a little time, she will 
like Constantinople quite as well. 

"I said to Dr. Anderson, this morning, that I 
thought we must hasten home to take care of the 
country. His good-natured reply was, ' Ah ! I think 
we shall find the country about where it was when 
we left home.' I find him, as I expected, a most 
excellent man, and a very useful travelling-compan- 
ion. We leave for Syria to-morrow. Hope to be in 
Beirut in Hve or six days, and in Jerusalem some 
time about the first of April. There is our last busi- 
ness to be attended to. This done, I shall turn my 
face homeward with the least possible delay." 









LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 173 

JOUE^A^. 

"Feb. 29. — Took leave of friends, and left Smyrna 
at four o'clock for Beirut. Found it hard parting 
with my dear daughter. She is a most tender- 
hearted creature, and clings to her parents with all 
the ardent feeling of which she is capable. I often 
wonder how I ever consented to her coming to spend 
her life in this distant land." 

" Beirut, March 10. 

"Have been very busy since I came here in 
attending to the concerns of the mission. They 
are in a very perplexed state. The ground is hard. 
The mission, from the first, has been subject to great 
trials. If none were established here, I should hesi- 
tate much, in the present state of our funds and the 
prospects of the station, before I should decide to 
commence one." 

The work at this station soon outgrew all these 
fears, and has since surpassed the expectations even 
of the most hopeful. That superb version of the 
Scriptures in pure, classic Arabic, for sixty or eighty 
millions of readers, is the ripe fruit of this field, by 
the hands of Drs. Smith and Vandyke. A theologi- 
cal college has sprung up in it for the supply of na- 
tive preachers and teachers ; and the light from 
these fires, through preaching, the press, and schools, 
shines away, east, north, and south, into the dark- 
ness of Heathenism and Mohammedanism, which it is 
fast dispelling. Dr. Bellows, a distinguished Uni- 
tarian clergyman, after a few days of careful inspec- 
tion, wrote, " I am sure that the Syrian mission has 



174 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

had a great and admirable success. It seems to me, 
from all I can learn, that it has, from the start, been 
animated by a singularly pure and unworldly spirit, 
and that the men on the ground have mingled piety 
and learning and prudence in a remarkable degree." 

So little can we sometimes foresee what fruit will 
spring from the divine seed, when scattered even on 
the most unpromising soil. 

Our travellers made an excursion to Abeih, among 
the mountains of Lebanon. 

" March 19. — I rose early in the morning, and 
walked out to view the scenes around me. It was 
a glorious sight. The sun was just throwing his 
bright beams upon the snow-topped mountains in the 
distance. Beneath me, seemingly at my feet, was 
the Mediterranean, with its long line of coast stretch- 
ing far to the north and south; Beirut, with its 
houses, harbor, and vessels, in full sight. On either 
hand were to be seen villages situated on the sloping 
sides of the hills, which were now beginning to put 
on the rich livery of spring ; and in the distance the 
eye rested on the sites of ancient Sidon and Tyre, 
and the regions round about, which were once visit- 
ed by the Son of God. I looked upon the goodly 
scene with admiration and wonder, and I trust, also, 
with some emotion of gratitude and praise to the 
great Being who made and upholds all. I felt my- 
self to be in the midst of a vast temple ; and I want- 
ed to fall down and worship, to love, to praise, and 
to adore. 

"Tanoos el Hadad is a man about thirty-five; 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 175 

has long been connected with our mission, and is ac- 
counted a good man. He is engaged in teaching 
a number of youths the Arabic Grammar, and also 
in distributing books and attending meetings. His 
wife is a fine-looking woman, and dresses somewhat 
in a decent style, — as the great majority of the 
females in this country do not, — faces covered, 
bosoms bare, and horn peering from the head. This 
is one of the most odious deformities that ever the 
folly of woman attached to her person. It is also 
exceedingly inconvenient and hurtful ; bringing 
disease of the head and eyes, and sometimes so par- 
alyzing the muscles about the jaw as to prevent 
opening the mouth." 

March 25, they left Beirut for Jerusalem, taking 
with them as travelling-companions Dr. Eli Smith 
and Eev. Mr. Calhoun of the Syrian mission. 

" 26th. — Dined at a poor, dilapidated house 
on a hill, shortly after passing the Leontes. Our 
dinner was served up in true Arabic style. A mat 
was spread over the manure in the yard : a dish of 
fried eggs was brought out ; and we placed ourselves 
round it on our knees, and fell to eating, clipping 
our bread in the dish, and taking up what we could 
with our fingers. No knife, no fork ; nothing to 
drink from but an earthen jug. It was a curious sight. 

" We stopped at a small village, at two, for re- 
freshments, — poor, dirty, miserable, beyond what I 
had ever seen ; but were not allowed to enter a 
dwelling to take refreshment, lest we should pollute 



176 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

them, we being Christians, they a sect of Moham- 
medans. Rode on till dark amidst mud and rain and 
rocks and hills, and stopped at a place called Rume- 
ish. There we lodged in a poor hovel; floor of 
mud ; stable in an offset of some three or four feet 
in the same room. Two horses, two cows, three 
goats, a donkey, and a little bleating kid, were our 
room-mates for the night. 

" The people came in large numbers to gaze at us. 
The sheik was kind, giving up his house for our ac- 
commodation. 

" Saturday, April 6. — Rose this morning much 
refreshed after a good night's rest. I could hardly 
realize that I was in Jerusalem. Visited the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre. It was the winding-off of 
Easter. Immense numbers of pilgrims, — some five 
thousand, - — Greeks, Armenians, Copts, and Syrians, 
or Jacobites, were in the city, and crowding in and 
around the church. I pressed into the midst of 
them. Went into the sepulchre and different parts 
of the church. The scene I cannot describe, espe- 
cially the holy fire issuing from the sides of the 
sepulchre. I doubt whether any thing of the kind 
on earth is equally marked with disorder and fanati- 
cism. It seemed to me a lively image of hell. 

" Sabbath, 7th. — - Preached this morning in Mr. 
Lennea's parlor ; Dr. Keith of Scotland in the after- 
noon; and in the evening we had the sacrament 
administered as at its institution, — the same time 
of the year, the same city, in the evening, in an up- 
per room. 

" The whole of Palestine and Syria wears an as- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 177 

pect of desolation. The land, even the richest por- 
tions of it, h but very imperfectly cultivated ; and, 
wherever we go, we travel over ruined cities and 
villages, and behold on every side the melancholy 
signs of departed prosperity. 

a Thursday, April 11. — Eose early this morn- 
ing to be on our way to Jaffa ; whence we intended 
taking passage for Beirut and Smyrna, but were 
driven back by the violence of the wind and rain 
after having gone a little distance beyond the gates 
of the city. I have rarely witnessed a more severe 
storm in my own country, — rain, hail, snow, — 
very cold. 

" Saturday, April 13. — The weather became more 
favorable this morning ; and, though • windy and 
cold, we determined to start for Jaffa. Took leave 
of our friends, and left the city at half-past seven." 

" Kamla, Sept. 14. 

" Fearing we should fail of reaching the boat, and 
having done our best to be in season, we resolved 
to rise early this morning, and ride to Jaffa, hoping 
to get there shortly after sunrise. Accordingly we 
rose at four, and got ready to start ; when one of 
our horses was reported to be lost. It proved to be 
the one I rode. Messengers were despatched to 
search for him ; but after having waited till ten, and 
no horse found, we resolved to go on without him, 
leaving poor one-eyed Usef, our servant, to look 
after him, and I hiring another to take me to Jaffa. 
A gold-piece was put into the hands of the consul 
to reward the finder. This was a very poor begin- 



178 LIFE OF DR. HAWES.- 

ning of the Sabbath ; and I could not but feel that 
our trouble was of our own procuring. The whole 
day passed most unprofitably. Several mistakes and 
perplexities afterwards occurred. We all got out 
of temper ; and, on the whole, I wish never to begin 
or end another Sabbath in a similar manner. 

" Wednesday, 17th. — Got under way about elev- 
en in the evening. In the morning, were off Mt. 
Carmel, on the top of which is a convent dedicated 
to Elijah. Stopped at Caifa, and walked to the top. 
The prospect extensive and grand. There are, at 
present, ten monks living in the convent. I saw 
seven of them — lazy, stupid-looking fellows as I 
ever saw — sitting on the wall in front of the 
convent, sunning themselves, showing their snuff- 
boxes, and playing with a large mastiff. If Elijah 
could visit this place, I cannot but think he would 
find as little to approve in these men as he did in 
the priests of Baal ; and he might order them to the 
same end. 

" A more wretched perversion of the gospel and all 
the means of grace cannot well be conceived than 
these convents. They are hot-beds of sin, and fit 
only to be demolished. As John Knox was accus- 
tomed to teach, ' The only way to get rid of the 
rooks is to pull down their nests.' 

" Left Beirut at three o'clock. In getting from 
the shore, it seemed as if the spirit of madness had 
been let loose upon us. Our baggage had to be 
examined by the custom-house officer, — a parsimoni- 
ous, surly fellow, — for which, of course, we had to 
pay him. Then our trunks and luggage were seized 



. LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 179 

by I know not how many half-starved and naked 
Arabs, each striving to get a piece ; and every 
one who touched an article or looked at yon 
demanded backsheesh. Next we were taken each 
one upon the back of an Arab, and carried to the 
boat, as it could not come to the shore, the water 
being too shallow. Here new trouble commenced. 
A quarrel took place between the man whom we had 
enowed to take us to the steamer and the owner 
of the boat, — one striving to heave the boat off, 
and the other to force it back, — each shouting at 
the same time at the top of his voice, and some 
twenty or more Arabs ioinina; in chorus. It was a 

J JO 

scene of the most extreme confusion I ever wit- 
nessed. I felt the want of authority. • Had I pos- 
sessed it at that moment, my cane, I am sure, would 
have found new employment. I was in great 
anxiety lest the steamer should go and leave us. 
But nothing; could be done but to let the fellows 
scold it out ; and then, after having rowed us about 
half way, the principal one among them had the 
impudence to ask us for backsheesh. I was rejoiced 
when I stepped from the boat, and got quit of such 
miserable fragments of human beings. 

" We soon got under way ; ' and I bade farewell 
to the shores of degraded Syria. Poor Syria ! — the 
worst-governed country in the world, and by far 
the most miserable I ever saw, — may God soon 
bring the clay of thy deliverance, break from thy 
neck the yoke of oppression, and cause the song of 
salvation to be heard among thy now-decaying vil- 
lages and desolated plains and valleys and moun- 
tains ! 



180 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

"Night closed in as we entered the Gulf of Smyrna; 
and the next morning, April 26, found us anchored 
at some distance from the shore. An officer soon 
came on board ; and we prepared, with as good a 
grace as we could, to be taken into a boat, and rowed 
off to spend ten days in a Turkish quarantine. On 
arriving there, we found our prospects dismal indeed ; 
the house, with its appurtenances, most odious, di- 
lapidated, and falling to ruins, — just like the Turkish 
Empire. The rooms, such as they were, had all been 
taken up. We tried to find some one who had the 
command; but no such one could be found: all was 
6 confusion worse confounded.' I sat down to write 
a note to friends in town, not thinking that such 
a message could no more be sent than the plague it- 
self. In the close of it, I begged some of them to 
come to our relief; for we were certainly in the worst 
place but one in the universe. 

"Mary, with Mr. Yan Lennep, got information of 
our arrival about the time we were leaving the 
steamer, and came alongside just in time to see us 
rowed off to our prison-house. Of course, she could 
not come near me ; and I would not allow her to visit 
me at the lazaretto till we should be settled. Yes- 
terday she came ; but we could converse only through 
double pickets, some twelve feet apart. It seemed 
just as if I had been doing some wicked thing, and 
were shut out from all society. The laws of quaran- 
tine, however, I am disposed to regard as wise in 
this quarter of the world." 

Among the letters which Dr. Hawes received 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 181 

from home, on his arrival at Smyrna, was one from 
Judge Williams, of which the following is an ex- 
tract : — 

"Hartford, Feb. 7, 1844. 

u My dear Sir, — Your letter to me, with that to 
the people, of the 28th of November, from Athens, 
was received on the 29th inst. As you anticipated, 
it could not be read on the first Sabbath of the new 
year. But it was not the less welcome on the first 
Sunday of February : and as the day was remarkably 
pleasant, and notice was given, it was communicated 
to a much fuller house than would have appeared 
on the appropriate day ; and I believe all were grati- 
fied to hear from their pastor even by the voice 
of another. 

" Mr. R evinces a good spirit in all his per- 
formances : in some he excels, particularly in his 
pastoral duties ; attends all our weekly meetings ; 
and is peculiarly acceptable to the young, — so much 
so, that some have even expressed a fear that he 
might steal the hearts of the people from their own 
pastor. There is no serious danger from this source. 

I agree with Mr. M , i that when Dr. Hawes 

returns home, and blows his trumpet, his troops will 
all come to his standard.' We rejoice that we 
have found a man who can so well satisfy those who 
have been used to hear Dr. Hawes. 

" The congregation has kept together remarka- 
bly well. The meetings, both on the Sabbath and 
on the week, have been as fully attended as is 
common at this season, when there was no particu- 
lar excitement. 



182 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

" I have been thus particular, that you might see 
that there was no special reason why you should 
break in upon your plans to hasten home ; and it 
seems to me, as you are where you never will be 
again, that you had better go to all those places 
which you originally intended, without reference to 
your parish. I have it in charge from Mr. Parsons, 
who came in while I was writing, to give his re- 
spects, with a hope you would not come home until 
you had visited Italy." 

" Smykna, Monday, May 6. 

" Yesterday being the tenth day of our quarantine, 
we were liberated from our confinement at eight 
o'clock; and, a boat having been engaged to be in 
waiting for us, we went on board as soon as the gates 
were open, and were quickly landed, at the steps lead- 
ing to the house of my dear son and daughter. He 
was with us in the boat ; and she met us at the land- 
ing, and gave us an affectionate welcome. 

"I preached in the afternoon, in the Dutch chapel, 
to a small but select audience ; my text, Isa. xxviii. 
16 : i Behold, I lay in Zion,' &c. I felt it was my last 
sermon here ; and I could not but be solemn. It was 
to me a good season, and I trust not unprofitable to 
others. 

" May 10. — A most sad and trying clay. I had, 
for a long time, looked forward to it with an inex- 
pressible sinking of heart : and, as the time of sepa- 
ration drew near, I strove, but in vain, to control my 
feelings ; and I knew not how I could endure the trial. 
The hour came. I must separate from my dear child, 
with no expectation of seeing her again in this world. 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 183 

\c was dreadful. She clung to me with all the ten- 
derness of her pure, strong affection. We mingled 
tears and embraces a few moments in the boat (she 
did not go on board) ; then parted for the last time. 
" May God support me under this great trial ! I 
sometimes fear it will be more than I can bear. I do 
not murmur : it has all been of God's ordering. But 
bereaved affection will bleed. My heart dies within 
me. My tears fall so fast, I can write no more. Oh ! 
bless my dear child, and make her a blessing ; and 
may I be made better by all this painful scene 
through which I have been called to pass ! " 

No wonder that the daughter clung to her father. It 
was "the last time." They never met again till they 
met in the heavenly home. No wonder their hearts 
were rent. There was to be for them no more clasp- 
ing of hands, nor mingling of tears, nor fond embraces. 

The following letter from Mrs. Yan Lennep, writ- 
ten shortly after this parting scene, breathes the 
sweet spirit of her gratitude and love : — 

" My own precious Father, — God will take care 
of you on the great waters, and will bring you safe- 
ly to your dear home and people. And we — shall 
we not pray for you, and send our hearts with you ? 
And does time or distance separate us ? Oh, no, my 
dear father ! time and distance cannot break the ties 
which bind our hearts together : for we are united 
by our Father in heaven ; and it is his love which 
makes us one company, one family, still. Do not 
think that H and I are afar off: it will not be 



184 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

true if you do. We are close to you ; and God, up 
in heaven, who sees our hearts, looks upon us as if 
we were not separated. 

" my dear father ! it is good to be in his 
hands ; to know no will but his ; to work just where 
he appoints, and just how he appoints. We thank 
God that he has brought you here. You will never 
know the good you have done, in this world. It has 

been a sweet comfort to H and me ; and every 

word of yours is treasured in our memory. I thank 
you (thank is a poor word) for every counsel you 
have ever given me ; for every prayer you have 
prayed for me ; for all the sermons I have heard 
you preach ; for all our pleasant talks together. 

" Dear father, you will not be sorry that we are 
working on missionary-ground, when you get to 
heaven. And now go home to dear mother, and 

comfort her heart, and train up dear E to be a 

missionary ; and tell all my young friends that there 
is a great and blessed work to be done in this world, 
and that they have but one life to do it in. 

" Our hearts go with you. Why will you still 
think we are, after all, separated ? What is a mass 
of water or a piece of earth ? And now, dear 
father, I embrace you, and kiss away all your tears; 
and I am your own affectionate daughter." 

Just before leaving Smyrna, Dr. Hawes received 
the following characteristic letter : — 

"Pera, May 1, 1844. 

" Rev. and dear Sir, — We had yesterday the 
unexpected pleasure of meeting with you in the 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 185 

frontispiece of c The National Preacher.' From 
the greatest to the least of ns in all our families, we 
knew you at the first glance. Indeed, you seem to 
be known and read of all men, whether in name, 
face, or character. The likeness is certainly excel- 
lent: and we (I mean Mrs. Goodell and myself) claim 
it as ours ; for, as you have begun to rob our family, 
we concluded to begin a retaliation. The 'Treacher ' 
is therefore despoiled of his face, and it is transferred 
to my study ; and you may be sure I shall never look 
at it with so much sharpness as to frighten it away. 

" Mrs. Goodell, I am happy to say, really seems 
better than she has been before for three years. 
She feels that she could now enjoy a visit from you 
and Dr. Anderson, and would not be the hundredth 
part so afraid of you as she was before. Eliza, also, 
is in much better health, and in good spirits. These 
are great, great mercies. Till within three years, 
I hardly ever prayed in my family for temporal 
mercies, for I thought only of spiritual and eternal 
ones ; but God's providences have taught us in some 
measure the value of a little comfort here on earth, 
and I hope we may never forget what we have been 
so slow to learn. 

"I have given to Eliza for you a view of the en- 
trance to Constantinople, with a part of the Bos- 
phorus. I hope that neither you nor Mrs. Hawes 
will ever regret the singular use you made of your 
shepherd's crook in my study. I myself thought I 
saw more of the hand of God in it than I did of 
your own hand ; and I think so still. And may this 
be more and more manifest to us all ! 



186 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

"May the Lord graciously restore you to your 
beloved family aud people ! You carry with you 
our very best wishes aud our sincere prayers. Mrs. 
Goodell sends ten thousand salutations ; and would 
be full of gladness to have you come amongst us 
again, even though you should stretch out your rod 
a second time. 

" "With much Christian love from us all to Dr. 
Anderson ; also to your son and daughter, whom we 
are desirous of welcoming here soon, very soon, — 
" Yours most truly, 

"W. Goodell." 

The use which the Hartford pastor made of his 
"crook" in the study at Constantinople was to lay 
it on the head of "Eliza," one of Dr. Goodell' s daugh- 
ters, in adoption of her as his own ; and she soon 
followed him to the parsonage in Grove Street. 

" Venice, Friday, May 24. 

"Left Trieste Wednesday evening, ten o'clock. 
Arrived here seven next morning. Visited St. 
Mark's Church, the old palace of the cloge, audi- 
ence-room (senate-chamber as we should call it), 
prison under the palace, and the Bridge of Sighs, 
over which criminals passed when condemned to be 
put to death. Saw the cell where they were pressed 
to death by a door closing upon them. It seemed 
to me like hell, — the whole prison, place of inquisi- 
tion, torture, confession, death. 

"Went to the top of the tower of St. Mark's 
Church. A view exceedingly beautiful, — the Grand 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 187 

Canal, the islands around, the darting along of gon- 
dolas in countless numbers and forms. The city is 
evidently decaying ; trade declining, Trieste taking 
it; palaces falling to ruins, deserted, or occupied 
for public offices. I must read the history of this 
wonderful people : the marks of their power are 
everywhere visible. 

" I am satisfied, if ever we make headway among 
the Oriental Christians, it must be by overdoing 
them in the article of holy living, of intelligence and 
faithful preaching. Truth and God's Spirit are our 
only reliance. In wealth, in richness of external 
machinery, in all that addresses the senses, capti- 
vates the taste, works on the imagination, they are 
greatly in advance of us, and ever must be. Here 
is, indeed, a ground on which we cannot meet them. 

" When I look at the gorgeous and imposing ap- 
pearance of the churches in these countries, the 
music, paintings, statuary which adorn them, and 
the mysterious services performed in them, I wonder 
not that the people are Catholics, or that they feel a 
strong attachment to their church. 

" I have just been to visit again the Church of St. 
Mark, which is near my lodging, — altogether the 
grandest, most imposing edifice I ever saw. Many 
people were engaged in worship in different parts 
of the immense building. Some appear devout, 
others very light. The priest, officiating with his 
back to the people, said very little in any way ; and 
what he did say was inaudible to the people, — his 
whole service chiefly in bodily motions. 

" The great ends of Christian worship wholly lost 



188 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

sight of, and every service utterly perverted ; the 
house a place of pictures and show ; the pulpit, 
the sittings, the sacraments, the priesthood, — every 
thing out of place ; no instruction ; no preaching ; 
no prayer in a known language. The children are 
brought in, and trained up to go through the forms, 
and so become attached. 

" My heart faints when I think how wide and how 
powerful is the reign of error and delusion in these 
lands. May my own dear country know and appre- 
ciate its high privileges, and never fall under the 
dominion of Popery, which, the more I see of it, 
the more I am convinced is adapted only to stupefy 
the conscience, crush the intellect, corrupt the heart, 
and lead the people blindfold to ruin. 

"Saturday, May 25. — 'Left Venice at seven for 
Verona. Vexations of travelling in these lands in- 
numerable. In getting away from Venice this 
morning, we had, 1. To fee the servants for bring- 
ing our luggage from the chamber. 2. We had to 
fee another set for putting it into the boat. 3. We 
had to pay the boatman. 4. The guide, 5. For 
taking our luggage from the boat, and carrying it 
to the railroad-house. 6. For our passage. 7. For 
showing our passports, and having a permit to go, — 
giving our names, and where going. 8. For exam- 
ining our trunks for contraband tobacco especially. 

9. For rowing the boat to the depot. And then, 

10. For doing all this well. It is a vile system of 
extortion. Soldiers about you at every step." 

The welcome extended by the flock to the shep- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 189 

herd on his return was warm and most sincere. A 
public reception had been arranged in the City Hall, 
where the congregation, old and young, greeted 
him " with such delicacies as children delight in, 
and to which even children of a larger growth are 
not wont to manifest any decided aversion." The 
superintendent, in behalf of the Sabbath school, 
presented the 'salutations of the assembly; to which 
Dr. Hawes felicitously responded. Brief addresses 
were also made, and hymns of welcome sung ; and, 
of all the happy throng, no one was happier than the 
beloved and faithful pastor. 

The estimate placed upon the influence of this 
visit of Dr. Hawes to the missions is seen from a 
few letters addressed to the church in Hartford. 

" Constantinople, Feb. 27, 1844. 
"To the First Church of Christ in Hartford, Conn. 

" l Grace he unto you, mercy and peace, from God 
the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son 
of the Father, in truth and love.'' 

66 Dearly Beloved in the Lord, — The recent visit 
of your pastor to us has been so refreshing to our 
spirits, that we should be doing great injustice to 
our feelings not to make a most distinct and grate- 
ful acknowledgment of your kindness in permitting 
us to enjoy so precious a privilege. It is true that 
some of the ministers of Christ have at different 
times passed this way in the prosecution of their 
various objects ; but it is equally true, that this is 
the first time we have ever been visited by one 
who came c for the express purpose that he might 



190 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

know our estate, and might comfort our hearts : y and 
we have therefore wished to receive him, in a special 
manner, as ' a messenger of the churches and the 
glory of Christ.'' It is impossible for you to imagine, 
or for us fully to explain, how deeply our own hearts 
have been affected by those pastoral sermons we 
have heard from his lips on the Sabbath, or how 
much we have been edified and strengthened and 
comforted by his counsels and prayers. We say, 
'pastoral sermons ; ' for we ourselves were never 
pastors ; nor have many of us had the privilege of 
listening to the voice of a pastor before, since we 
first left our beloved native country. We pray that 
the impression made on our own minds and on the 
minds of others in our congregation may be per- 
manent ; and may the c Lord count, when he wriieth 
up the people, that this and that man was horn here ' 
in consequence of this visit ! 

" To our native brethren especially, with whom, 
through an' interpreter, he repeatedly held conver- 
sations, and to whom he repeatedly addressed words 
of consolation, was his presence an encouragement, 
and his discourse a blessing. He told them of his 
own labors at home ; of his own beloved church and 
people ; of the various praying and benevolent 
circles and charitable institutions in your city ; and 
of those c times of refreshing from the presence of 
the Lord' which you have at different times enjoyed : 
and once and again 6 he exhorted them all, that with 
purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.' 
To these communications they listened, often with 
tearful interest. They have thanked God, and taken 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 191 

courage. And they feel that your Saviour is theirs ; 
that you and they have all been made to c drink 
into one Spirit ; ' that they are now c fellow-citizens 
with the saints/ and share in their love and sym- 
pathy ; and that believers of every name and nation 
are all one in Christ. 

" In all the various conferences which we have 
had the privilege of enjoying with the Secretary of 
our Board, your pastor has been present ; and in all 
our numerous and deeply-interesting discussions he 
has taken a part. The result of all these will, we 
are confident, be most happy, and will be felt for a 
long time to come. Would that such visits to us, 
both on the part of the Board and on the part of the 
churches, could be more frequently made ! To be 
so long deprived of the labors of your pastor must, 
indeed, seem to you a great sacrifice. But the loss 
to you has been great gain to us. Indeed, we feel 
that this visit has been altogether more important 
and desirable than any pecuniary donation you could 
have made us. But, beloved friends, ' ye know the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christy that though he was 
rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through 
his poverty might become rich' And for his sake, 
who hath thus '■ loved us, and washed us from our 
sins in his own blood,' and gladdened us with all 
the riches and bright prospects of eternity, shall we 
ever feel that we have done enough, or made suf- 
ficiently great sacrifices ? No : 

'Had we a thousand lives to give/ 

or ten thousand sacrifices to make, the ' thousand 



192 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

lives ' should all be spent in his service, and the 
twice ten thousand sacrifices should all be cheerfully 
made for his cause. 

" Of all the churches in America, yours is the only 
one from whom we can in any sense be said to have 
received a delegate. Three members of your church 
also are brought into a very near relation to us by 
being connected with the missionary enterprise in 
Turkey. And, finally, to your pastor we have con- 
fided, and to your prayers and sympathies we also 
now commend, one of the oldest children of our 
own families. 

u c And now may the God of peace, that brought 
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great 
Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the 
everlasting covenant, make us all perfect to clo his 
will, working in us that which is well pleasing in 
his sight, through Jesus Christ ; to whom be glory 
for ever and ever. Amen.' 

" In behalf and by vote of this missionary station, 
" Yours in the fellowship of the gospel, 

"W. GOODELL." 

The Eev. Dr. Anderson says of him, " It suited 
his convenience to accompany me through the en- 
tire circuit; and it was no less gratifying to the 
missions than it was to me thus to have the benefit 
of his pious counsels and influence in all our deliber- 
ative meetings, — even the most confidential. Of 
course, his position was one of some delicacy ; but 
he showed admirable tact, and was of essential 
service in certain departments of the enterprise. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 193 

I recollect nothing of any importance that he said 
or did which I saw reason to regret ; and, in onr 
necessarily intimate and confiding intercourse, he 
gained a foothold on my respect and love, which I 
have reason to believe was generously reciprocated ; 
and our mutual regard suffered not a moment's in- 
terruption till his death. 

" As you well know, our departed friend had not 
the advantages of an early cultivation of manners : 
but travelling in steamers in the Mediterranean, 
and crossing Europe on a homeward journey, we 
came in contact with almost all the varieties of social 
life ; and I was pleased to see that Dr. Hawes's fine 
conversational powers rarely failed to command re- 
spect and attention, where there was opportunity to 
exercise them ; and, on the steamer which brought 
us from England, he was, by common consent, the 
recognized chaplain of the voyage." 

In the report of the American Board for 1844, 
the secretaries refer to the visit of Dr. Anderson, 
and speak of their indebtedness to Dr. Hawes " for 
his valuable aid voluntarily rendered to the cause." 

Hardly was he re-established in his pastoral work 
before tidings came of the illness of the beloved 
daughter from whom he had so recently parted. 

" Makry-Keuy, near Constantinople, Aug. 28, 1844. 

" My dear Parents, — Both Mary and myself 
thought, that, as the Vienna post leaves to-day, I had 
better write by it, and inform you that she is sick. 
She has dysentery, which came on about a fortnight 



194 LIFE OF DR. R AWES. 

since. She has, at times, improved by the medicines 
given her ; but last night it came on with redoubled 
violence, and some of the symptoms are alarming. 
She has many apprehensions that it may end badly, 
but appears beautifully in it all." 

About a week after, Mrs. Van Lennep herself com- 
menced a letter, which she never finished : — 

" My dear Parents, — I fear we distressed you 
too much by writing you, last week, concerning my 
illness ; but it is my desire that you should know all 
about your children here, both in sickness and in 
health. I am better now, you see, and amuse my- 
self in reading and writing ; but I am not yet well. 
I know you are thinking much of lis in these days. 
Oh, how vividly they pass before our minds ! And 
yet I have refrained from thinking much of them ; 
for I am too weak. Dear mamma's letter, dated 
July 15, came on our wedding-day. Oh, what a 
comfort it was to me ! . . . 

" I have not known, till this sickness, how happy 
Christ can make us. He can satisfy the heart!' 

In the morning of Sept. 27, Mr. Yan Lennep 
commenced a letter, which the dreaded and most 
desolating event prevented him from finishing. It 
was completed by Rev. Mr. D wight : — 

" One o'clock. — Thus far, your son-in-law had writ- 
ten. And now, at his request, I enter upon the pain- 
ful duty of announcing to you that your beloved 



LIFE OF DR. II AWES. 195 

daughter's race in this world is run. She < has fought 
the good fight; she has finished her course ; she has 
kept the faith.' 

"I have just come from the bedside where her 
lifeless body still lies. Would that I could speak a 
word of comfort to your hearts ! But God must com- 
fort you ; and I doubt not he will do it. Heaven is 
as near to the children of God in Constantinople as 
in Hartford ; and it is as safe dying here as there." 

Thus, in less than five months from their separa- 
tion in the beautiful harbor of Beirut, this cherished 
missionary-daughter parted from father, mother, 
husband, and all earthly scenes, and entered the 
untroubled waters of heavenly purity and peace. 

THE BEKEAVED FATHER'S LETTER TO THE BEREAVED 

HUSBAND. 

"Hartford, Nov. 12, 1844. 

" My dear Children, Henry and Mary, — So I 
began a letter Oct. 3, and had just closed it when 
yours of the 28th of August came to hand, inform- 
ing us of the sickness of the dear deceased one. I 
retained it till I should hear again ; when, one week 
since, yours of the 18th of September, taken from the 
office last Monday, left very little hope to comfort us 
in our apprehensions. The next day, the one of the 
27th was received, which took away that little hope, 
and filled our bosoms with inexpressible grief. So 
my dear child is gone ! I looked upon her for the 
last time, as I felt I did, when she was rowed away 
from the steamer on the 10th of May, leaning upon 



196 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

your bosom for support. It was a sorrowful parting ; 
and, though I regarded it as final, I still hoped to 
enjoy her society through her sweet correspondence. 
But God has seen fit to order it otherwise : and 
though the affliction sinks deep into my spirit, and 
my poor nature scarcely knows how to bear it, I say, 
' The will of the Lord be done ; ' and, in the spirit of 
the text on which I preached last Sabbath morning, 
I hope I am enabled to add, ' The Lord is my 
portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in 
him.' 

" I loved her much : no human being did I ever 
love more. I bless God for making her so lovely, 
and for fitting her so early for her removal to his 
presence in heaven. I never expected she would 
live long in the service to which her life was de- 
voted. I often made the remark to my friends, that 
she would have a short chapter. It was shorter than 
I anticipated ; and only in this particular am I dis- 
appointed. The desolation I feel is great. I try to 
bring the consolations attending the event to sustain 
my sinking heart, and I trust I in some measure feel 
them ; but the father is weak, and often feels incon- 
solable under the loss. But I should not, my dear 
son, increase your sorrows by adding to them my 
own : I should rather strive to speak to you words 
of peace and comfort. But I have found — what, I 
doubt not, is your experience in this sad clay — that 
words, even when spoken from the truest sympathy, 
have little power to soothe or to help us. It is only 
religion and time that can lift off the load from our 
crushed spirits, and enable us to resume our duties 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 197 

in any measure of cheerfulness. I have thought 
much of you in this sore bereavement. May God 
be near to you, and comfort you with his good pres- 
ence ! Your discipline is peculiar : may it prepare 
you for greater usefulness, and a happier place in 
heaven! " 



CHAPTER X. 

Ministerial Fellowship with Dr. Bushnell suspended. — Correspond- 
ence. — Fellowship restored. 

THE period at which we have now arrived was 
marked by one of the only two great minis- 
terial troubles in the life of Dr. Hawes. For fifteen 
years, the pastors of the Centre and North Churches 
in Hartford had lived and worked together in minis- 
terial harmony and brotherly love. In 1848, Dr. 
Bushnell delivered three remarkable discourses on 
three equally noteworthy occasions, and all from the 
same text. These deliverances were also made on 
the three pinnacles of philosophic and theological 
learning in New England, — at Yale College, the 
Harvard Divinity School, and Andover Theological 
Seminary. The topics treated were, in the first, the 
Trinity, and the Divinity of Christ ; in the second, 
the Atonement; in the third, Dogma and Spirit, or 
the Reviving of Religion. 

The three discourses have the continuity and 
unity of a distinctly - marked plan. They sweep 
over the whole field of fundamental Christian the- 
ology, and with the originality, versatility, and 
rhetorical charm, for which the author is held in 

198 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 199 

such high repute. Each discourse produced, on its 
delivery, a strong impression, and called forth both 
adverse and commendatory criticisms. Some of the 
younger men in the ministry were carried along 
with the orator by the force and fascination of his 
eloquence. Some of the older and more cautious 
demurred and dissented, and doubted whereunto 
these things might grow. Dr. Hawes was of this 
latter class. 

Early in the following year, these discourses were 
published under the title of " God in Christ," with an 
elaborate introduction, and an apologetic or cocli- 
ciliary Dissertation on Language. The book-form 
gave opportunity for more careful and candid ex- 
amination. But this rather increased than removed 
the dissatisfaction. 

Dr. Hawes, Dr. Walter Clark, Dr. Samuel Spring, 
and some others, members with Dr. Bushnell of the 
Hartford Central Association, felt that the assaults 
upon the fundamental truths of the gospel were so 
unmistakable and dangerous as to call for ecclesias- 
tical examination ; and they brought the case before 
the association. According to the Saybrook Plat- 
form, charges against the consociated pastor must 
first be examined in the association. " If they find 
just occasion for trial, they shall direct to the calling 
of the council," — i.e., the consociation, — "when 
the offender shall be duly proceeded against." 

A majority of the association decided that the 
author of " God in Christ " could neither be sub- 
jected to the charge of heresy, nor denied the 
confidence of his brethren in the ministry. This 



200 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

action called forth from the Fairfield West Associa- 
tion a fraternal remonstrance, and a request that 
the case be reconsidered, and the decision reversed ; 
alleging fundamental errors in the book as a reason. 
This request the Central Association respectfully 
declined. The remonstrating body then brought 
the matter before the General Association at its 
meeting in 1849. 

A vote was passed to the effect, that " while we 
do, and can hardly too often, re-affirm our faith in 
the great doctrines of the gospel as embodied in our 
Confession of Faith, yet, as it belongs exclusively 
to the district associations to institute Christian 
discipline among their own members, ... we believe 
that any action of this body on the subject at the 
present time would be unseasonable." 

The following year, the General Association de- 
clared their dissent from any statements that deny 
a trinity of persons in the divine nature ; a true 
humanity in Christ, or that his sufferings were ac- 
cepted in the sinner's justification in lieu of deserved 
punishment ; and u that they can find no language 
more satisfactory on these topics than that of our 
own formulas." 

At this stage of the proceedings, the North Church 
in Hartford withdrew from the Consociation; thus 
avoiding, the results and trouble of a trial by remov- 
ing its pastor from the jurisdiction of the court. 

In these events Dr. Hawes took the deepest 
interest, and was disappointed and grieved at this 
termination. Meantime, "God in Christ" was fol- 
lowed by another book, — " Christ in Theology," — 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 201 

which was an expansion and defence of the former. 
What was at first a spark was now kindled to 
a flame. The books were reviewed and criticised, 
and the reviewers and critics criticised and reviewed. 
Party-feeling arose, and party-lines cut up churches 
and associations in New England, and, to some 
extent, out of it. Quarterlies, monthlies, weeklies, 
and miscellaneous pamphlets, were vigorously em- 
ployed in the discussion on both sides. 

It is sometimes said, that, of all controversies, 
those on theology and religion are the worst. This 
is not always, perhaps never, entirely true. If a 
religious controversy springs up where there is no 
occasion, it is an evil ; and if one that is called for 
is carried on in ill temper, or degenerates into per- 
sonalities, the personalities and the ill temper are a 
misfortune and a fault. While there have been 
many useless discussions in the Church, yet for her 
to be without controversy, when there are so many 
assailants of her doctrines outside and inside her 
pale, would show her, not a living militant, but an 
apathetic or a vanquished church. And to stigma- 
tize the contenders for the faith as bigots or alarm- 
ists evinces neither the quiet of confidence in one's 
cause, nor the best fighting qualities. It is, in 
itself, no more a reproach to defend an old fortress, 
than to assail it ; to love the ancestral homestead,' 
than to pick flaws in it, and seek to demolish it. 

On the withdrawal of the North Church from the 
Consociation, Dr. Hawes, after very careful consid- 
eration, felt it his duty to withdraw ministerial fel- 
lowship from Dr. Bushnell. For this step he was 



202 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

severely censured by some, and as warmly com- 
mended by others. He was charged as an alarmist ; 
but he felt that his anxiety was natural and reasona- 
ble. He was accused as a heresy-hunter. His reply 
was, " The heresy of Dr. Bushnell's book, if it be 
such, required no hunting ; for the doctrines which 
were objected to had been made public by the au- 
thor." 

The reasons that led to this step were his convic- 
tions of the essential unsoundness of Dr. Bushnell's 
speculations, the impossibility of a trial, and a feel- 
ing that ministerial fellowship in these circumstances 
would give countenance to dangerous errors, and 
to what he regarded as powerful assaults upon fun- 
damental gospel-truths. 

The vital points which he regarded as assailed 
are the Trinity, the Humanity of Christ, and the 
Atonement. These have been generally held by 
the Church as fundamental. It was not strange 
that a kind of panic was produced by the explosion, 
in the evangelical camp of three such shells, and in 
such quick succession, from an allied battery. And 
Dr. Hawes was not alone in feeling the shock. The 
staid " New-Englander " said, " Never was book more 
open to attack from every quarter than this book 
of Dr. Bushnell's." Rev. Albert Barnes did not 
•hesitate to pronounce it " another gospel." " It is 
heresy," said Dr. Lyman Beecher, " if heresy ever 
was or could be in the world, or if language could 
express it." Dr. Hawes felt most deeply that the 
book was wrong, and, on the main points discussed, 
"entirety wrong." 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 203 

These statements seem necessary to explain the 
course of Dr. Hawes in a matter which was re- 
garded by many as so unwise, uncharitable, and 
injurious to the cause of Christ. 

On the other hand, it is but justice to Dr. Bush- 
nell to say, that, though conscious of a departure 
from the received formulas of faith, he did not admit 
that he had broken so far away from them. He 
thought he was giving the essence of them in im- 
proved forms, and was preparing the way for their 
more general and intelligent acceptance. In reply 
to the adverse criticisms, he said " that his book 
was not understood ; that it was misunderstood and 
perverted." His critics felt that his theory of lan- 
guage was such, that his words could not be expected 
to convey his thoughts clearly or correctly on dog- 
matic subjects, or guard against the misunderstand- 
ings of which he complained. The author was 
aware that he might seem to assert the unreality of 
the Incarnation and the Trinity; but he explains 
the appearance by " the logical insolubility of the 
matters in hand," and the " contradictious results 
of language applied to subjects of thought and 
spirit." To Dr. Hawes this appearance was a sad 
reality, that did not admit of such an explanation. 
Dr. Bushnell alleged that the common Orthodox 
views of the Trinity and the Atonement involved 
contrarieties and absurdities, which, being held as 
truths of dogma, allow no explication; and that 
Unitarianism was sent to clear away the rubbish 
of past ages, and reduce the Christian truth to some 
less offensive and more credible shape. To Dr. 



204 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

Hawes these allegations were undisguised hostility 
to doctrines which were dear as life to him, and 
which, for eighteen hundred years, the Church had 
held as articles of faith. 

Dr. Bushnell asserted some reason or ground in 
God for every thing developed out of him, whether 
trinity, stone, or fly. Dr. Hawes, and others with 
him, felt that nothing is developed out of God ; that 
development is an element of Pantheism; and that 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not modal, but in- 
herent and eternal distinctions in the divine nature; 
and that every thing else comes by creation. 

This diversity of views Dr. Bushnell accounted for, 
in part, by a difference in theological method. His 
brethren, he said, were in the scholastic method 
of the Westminster Assembly, and he was not. 
They had changed a good many points to keep up 
with the advance of thought, while they held on to 
the old method. He had given up the method, but 
held fast to more of the substance of the doc- 
trines. 

These are phases in the external history of this 
trying period in Dr. Hawes's ministry. 

But there were internal differences and dissimili- 
tudes in the men, not unlike those between Bernard 
and Abelard, which entered in as explanations and 
causes of their theological divergence. Dr. Bushnell 
was, by constitution and habit, original and philo- 
sophical, excursive and speculative : Dr. Hawes was 
unimaginative and practical, and eschewed specula- 
tion. The reading of the one went far outside the 
province of the New-England or British theology, — 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 205 

into German metaphysics and poetry more, perhaps, 
than into the history of the Church and its doctrines : 
that of the other was limited a good deal to the 
biblical, historical, and practical aspects of theology. 
One was impressed with the idea of reviving religion 
by medicating the creeds ; the other, by medicating 
and improving the Church and its ministers. The 
former had been perplexed with troublesome doubts, 
and was drawn towards Unitarians by a profound 
sympathy and respect, grounded in a participation 
of similar difficulties : the latter had only transient 
troubles of this nature, and could not very easily 
understand such sympathy with the deniers of what 
his Christian experience made so essential, and the 
Bible, as he thought, made so plain. 

In the midst of these troubles, he writes to his old 
theological instructor, Dr. Woods, " I try to watch 
my spirit and motives, as you exhort me to do. I 
am sensible of my exposure to temptation from this 
quarter in consequence of my relations to Dr. Bush- 
nell ; and many, I know, will attribute the position 
I have felt constrained to take in this matter to 
envy, jealousy, or other bad motives. I pray against 
all this, and study to keep my heart with diligence ; 
but it does try me to see the truth which has been 
preached here two hundred years, and which God 
has so signally blessed, now impugned by rashness 
and foolish pretence, and ready to be discarded by 
many of whom I once thought better things. I 
stand by that truth, God helping me • and I hope 
his grace will be given to all his friends in these 
parts to stand by it too." 



206 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

After two years of this non-fellowship, an attempt 
was made at reconciliation. To a letter from Dr. 
Bushnell, dated Feb. 10, 1852, Dr. Hawes, the fol- 
lowing clay, writes : — 

"Hartford, Feb. 11, 1852. 
" Rev. Dr. Bushnell. 

" Dear Sir, — I do not think it best, in present 
circumstances, to reply to your letter of yesterday 
in detail. ... In taking the position I have in re- 
lation to yourself, I have honestly endeavored to 
keep a conscience void of offence in standing by 
God's truth as held by the venerable men who 
planted the gospel in this city, and as it has ever 
been held by the evangelical churches of New Eng- 
land. It is believed by many, and the impression 
has been industriously circulated, that the difficulty 
I have with you is of a personal character. Noth- 
ing is farther from the truth. My difficulty is alto- 
gether one of principle, growing out of what I have 
conscientiously believed your departure from the 
truth. There is nothing in my feelings towards 
you personally which would be the least bar to 
ministerial intercourse, if the difficulty referred to 
could be removed. . . . 

66 Within a short time, it has been intimated to me 
in several ways, partly by yourself and partly by 
others, that }^ou are disposed and would be able to 
make such a statement of your views as would relieve 
my mind on the points about which it now labors, 
and so furnish a platform on which we might stand 
together. This, in every point of view, is most 
desirable, especially at the present time of hopeful 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 207 

religious interest in this community. My object in 
writing this is to solicit from you such a statement. 
I do not ask an extended dissertation going into the 
merits of the question, nor a nicely-adjusted creed, 
but such a plain, brief, simple declaration of your 
views on the doctrines in question as you may think 
proper to make, and as will aver, in effect, that you 
hold them as they are commonly held by the evan- 
gelical ministers and churches of our country, or as 
they are set forth in the Assembly's Catechism or in 
the Thirty -nine Articles. Should you be able to do 
this, as I earnestly desire you may, I shall be happy 
to take such averment as evidence of your sound- 
ness in the faith ; and, as we cannot agree in respect 
to the past, we will refer that for adjustment before 
that higher tribunal which I pray God you and I 
may ever keep in view in the discharge of all our 
ministerial and Christian duties. 

" Yours with Christian affection, 

"J. Hawes." 

Dr. Bushnell had not proposed nor intimated his 
readiness to submit a creed or "platform on which 
they might stand together : " but he had said to 
Dr. Hawes, that if he wished to try the experiment, 
and see how near they could approach, he would try 
and set himself in such a position that he might 
reasonably be satisfied ; that he would come as near 
to him as he could without violating the integrity 
of his convictions. 

But the attempt at explanation and harmony, to 
the sorrow of both parties, failed. Two more years 



208 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

of non-fellowship folio wed, when another effort, com- 
menced by Dr. Bushnell, was more successful. 

The private correspondence between these two 
representative men, standing by their honest convic- 
tions in their marked theologic divergences, each 
regretful at their suspended ministerial intercourse, 
each hunting up old agreements, and seeking to 
construct a bridge of fellowship that would span 
their differences, — such a correspondence between 
two such men could not but be full of the deepest 
interest. It covered the period of a great trial to 
them both, and touched upon events that brought 
out all their strong feelings, and traits of character. 

To Dr. Bushnell's letter calling up the subject, 
Dr. Hawes replies : — 

" Hartford, Marcli 21, 1854. 
" Rev. Dr. Bushnell. 

" Dear Sir, — After the failure of our repeated at- 
tempts at explanation and reconciliation some two 
years since, I frankly confess that I opened and 
read your letter proposing a new attempt with not 
a little faintness of heart. 

"I see and I deplore, with not less sensibility 
than yourself, the evils resulting from the relations 
which at present exist between us. But I cannot 
feel that I am in any sense responsible for those 
evils ; nor do I see how it is in my power to change 
those relations. They are not of my creating ; nor 
are they for me to remove. I remain in the faith 
in which I entered the ministry, — the faith in which 
the church I serve was planted, and which is held 
by the great body of the evangelical churches in 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 209 

New England. You have parted from me on that 
faith. Such h my opinion, honestly formed, and 
honestly held ; and in this opinion I am in agree- 
ment with the great majority of those who have 
read your books, and have expressed their judgment 
respecting the doctrines they contain. I refer to 
your books, especially the first, c God in Christ.' I 
have a deep conviction that the teachings of that 
book are wrong, entirely wrong, on the main points 
discussed. You give me credit for honesty and con- 
scientiousness in my convictions. How, then, can 
you expect me to change them till you furnish me 
ground for so doing ? In my last interview with 
you in relation to this subject, I understood you to 
say that you still retained the sentiments advanced 
in the volume referred to ; and, in that mind, you 
published a third edition without retraction or ex- 
planation. Still, as I have assured you repeatedly, 
I was willing to pass over the teachings of your 
book, and let them be in my mind as if they had 
not been, and to meet you on any presently-avowed 
platform which should accord with the common faith 
of our Orthodox standards and ministers. You made 
the attempt kindly and honestly, I trust. I was not 
satisfied. I saw not but, in the several communica- 
tions you made me, you affirmed in substance the 
doctrines of your book. . . . 

" I try to school myself very closely in regard to 
this unhappy affair. It costs me many anxious and 
sorrowful hours ; and much do I pray that my spirit 
may be kept right in respect to yourself and yours. 
I do not hate you ; I do not oppose you by any 



210 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

direct efforts, nor in any manner voluntarily throw 
myself across your path. I keep about my own 
work, and, though often greatly tried and discour- 
aged, try to do all the good I' can in the circum- 
stances in which I find myself placed. I have said I 
do not hate you : in many respects I love you, and 
wish you all happiness in this life and forever. But 
we are apart ; and I do not see how we are to come 
together. Discover some way if you can, and you 
will find me neither obstinate nor perverse, nor ex- 
acting in my demands, but ready to meet you, and 
to work with you on the ground of a common faith, 
and in the service of a common Master. . . . 

" May God bless you, bless us, and give us wisdom 
to know and love his truth, and stand faithfully 
by it ! 

" Yours affectionately, 

"J. Hawes." 

The two following letters, which were made public 
at the time, will explain the ground, and in part 
the process, of the restored harmony and fellow- 
ship : — 

„ ^ TT "Hartford, April 3, 1854. 

" Rev. Dr. Hawes. 

" My clear Brother in Christ, — I am greatly 
pressed, and have been for some time past, by the 
religious state of our community, and especially by 
the suspicion that you and I, who ought by our 
unity and earnest co-operation to be promoters only 
of God's work (which I know it is fully in our hearts 
to do), are yet in fact, and to a much greater degree 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 211 

than we should clare to admit, hinderances instead, 
and obstructions. It is very true that there is no 
such personal repugnance or animosity subsisting 
between us as our separation rationally indicates ; 
but we are none the less responsible for the indica- 
tions on that account. We have no right even to 
seem to be hostile. And I think I see, that, by this 
very thing, we are hindering the prayers of our most 
faithful brethren, letting down the tone of religious 
convictions in the community, and even defeating the 
effect of our own ministrations. All which, I am sure, 
is not less painful to you than to me. It is unwor- 
thy of our character as Christian ministers ; and I 
have come to the very deliberate conclusion, that, 
whatever occasion it may seem to have had, we have 
reached a point where it is clearly unnecessary to 
be continued longer. 

" The two points in regard to which you were at 
first disturbed on my account were the Trinity and 
the Atonement. As regards the first, I did suppose, 
myself, when I published my first book, that, without 
rejecting a Trinity as one of the highest and most 
practical truths of the gospel, I had broken loose 
from any particular doctrine of Trinity contained in 
the Orthodox formulas. That you should have taken 
up a like conviction with myself is certainly not re- 
markable. But I afterwards found, on a more delib- 
erate historic investigation, that instead of rejecting, 
as I had supposed, and was quite willing to have 
others suppose, the Nicene doctrine, I had actually 
come into it, only from another quarter. Accord- 
ingly, if now I say that I assent to this formula, in 



212 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

its true historic sense, as a doctrine of eternal gene- 
ration, — assenting, of course, to the Westminster 
Confession, which is only an abridged and less 
complete exposition of the same, — I think I may 
assume that your difficulties on this head must be 
entirely removed. 

" Your ground of concern is thus narrowed down 
to the single matter of the Atonement, — a work of 
Christ. On this point, I never supposed that I had 
cast away any thing really held by the adherents of 
any church doctrine \ though it is exceedingly difficult 
on this point to say what the church doctrine is. I 
supposed that I was only revising the form, not that 
I was changing or reducing the substance. I cer- 
tainly was not, and am not now, insensible to the 
immense, all-inclusive import of this great Christian 
truth ; and am, therefore, as little disposed to com- 
plain that you are alive to its value, and set yourself 
to watch for its safety with the utmost fidelity, or 
even jealousy. 

" I could offer you here my acceptance of the 
twenty-fifth answer of the Shorter Catechism, ' re- 
garding the office-work of Christ as a priest, in 
precisely the sense given it by Dr. Jonathan Ed- 
wards (the younger) in his second sermon on the 
Atonement. I could also accept the thirty-third 
answer, on the subject of justification, without any 
such peremptory denial of the ' imputation here 
asserted as is common with the ministry of New 
England, and certainly without any qualification 
that will not leave it standing as a most practical 
Christian truth. I see not, therefore, how you can 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 213 

think it necessary to my safety that I should be 
more literally squared by the Catechism than Dr. 
Edwards, and, still another degree more truly in it, 
than the living ministers of New England. 

" But that I may leave you still less room, if pos- 
sible, for concern, I will go farther, giving you as a 
volunteer expression or statement of my belief on 
this head, — that the work of Christ, viewed in its 
relations to the law of God, is that by which the 
forgiveness of sins is made compatible with its in- 
tegrity and authority ; that Christ, to this end, was 
made under the law r , made sin for us, knowing no sin 
himself, receiving the chastisement of our peace, 
suffering and dying as a sacrifice for the sins of the 
world ; in all which he is set forth as a propitiation 
to declare the righteousness of God in the remission 
of sins ; whereby the law broken is as effectually 
sanctified and sustained in the view of his subjects, 
and his justice as fully displayed, as they would be 
by the infliction of the penalty : so that, on the 
ground of the sacrifice made by Christ, and received 
by faith, we are justified and accepted before God. 

" Considering, now, the very qualified respect I 
have for formulas and confessions, I hope you will 
take these avowals as being only a more decided proof 
of my personal respect, and the sincerity of my 
desire for the peace and the restored unity of the 
body of Christ. If you can find, in what I have 
advanced, asseverances that will justify the resump- 
tion of our former relations of amity and confidence, 
I am sure that you will hasten to profess your 
satisfaction, and congratulate our churches on the 



214 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

settlement of our distractions, and the removal of 
those bars to fellowship by which their prayers and 
our efforts have unhappily so long been hindered. 
Nothing will give me so great pleasure as to add my 
assistance and sympathy to the support of your 
advancing age and closing ministry, unless it be that 
I may also have your counsel and confidence to as- 
sure the conscious ill desert and weakness of my 
own. If, then, God permits us now once more to 
be united in a covenant of peace, let us do it in the 
prayer that it may be an everlasting covenant, 
never to be broken. 

" In the bonds of love and all perfections, 
" I am yours, 

"HORACE BUSHKELL." 

" Hartford, April, 1854. 
"Rev. Dr. Bushnell. 

" My dear Brother, — Your letter of the 3d inst. 
was kept from me several days after it was taken 
from the office, on account of the state of my health ; 
and, since it was put into my hands, I have not been 
able, till now, to give it more than a very imperfect 
attention. . . . 

"'I am surely, as before intimated, not insensible 
to the fact, that evils many and grievous must grow 
out of suspended fellowship and co-operation in 
promoting the cause of God between ministers sit- 
uated as we are, pastors of contiguous and mingled 
congregations ; and, oppressed as I often have been 
with a sorrowful sense of these evils, I have been 
willing to do any thing I could do, consistently with 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 215 

a conscientious regard to truth and duty, to put an 
end to them, by having confidence restored and 
fraternal relations established between us. I have 
known, too, that you have desired and sought the 
same. With this end in view, and knowing, more- 
over, that you disclaim the sentiments imputed 
to you as taught in your first volume, — " God in 
Christ," — I have, as you know, repeatedly before, 
as more recently in my reply to your letter of 
March 20, expressed my willingness to pass by the 
teachings of that book, and let them be in my mind 
as if they had not been, or had been retracted, and 
to meet you on any presentty-&Yowe& platform of 
doctrine which should accord with the common faith 
of our Orthodox standards and churches touching 
the points in controversy. And happy am I to say, 
that in your communication of the 3d inst., now 
before me, you seem to me to have met the con- 
dition, — to have offered such a platform. I find 
very little to which I feel disposed to object in the 
statement you make of your views of the Trinity, 
the work of Christ in his atonement, and justification 
by faith in his sacrifice. . . . 

"What you give as a volunteer expression or 
statement of your belief as to the work of Christ 
speaks for itself. The views presented in that state- 
ment, understood according to the common meaning 
of the language in which they are expressed, — and 
I have a right to assume that you wish them to be 
understood in no other sense, — seem to me to be 
full and satisfactory ; in accordance, in all essential 
points, with the views of evangelical ministers and 



216 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

churches generally ; and, as such, I am happy to 
accept thern as furnishing ground for restored con- 
fidence and ministerial intercourse. And I accept 
the statement you offer on the several points in 
question as true in all essential respects : I accept 
it joyfully and thankfully ; and am ready, as Provi- 
dence may open the way, to act accordingly. 

" In saying this, I deem it due to myself to acid, 
that I am not to be understood as having changed 
my views as to what I have honestly believed to be 
the main teachings of your book. I pass them by 
as what I cannot accept for truth, and hasten to 
redeem my pledge, — to meet you on a presently- 
avowed platform of truth ; and I trust it will be 
found a platform on which we shall both be willing 
to stand and co-operate during the brief period — 
brief to me at least it must be — in which we may 
be continued in the vineyard of our Master. And 
sure I am that my sun will go down brighter, and 
I shall leave this much-loved field of my labors and 
my prayers with a happier mind and more cheering 
hopes, if, as I close my course, I may think of these 
dear churches of our Lord as rooted and grounded 
in the truth, and their pastors as happily united in 
fellowship and love, and contending earnestly for 
the faith once delivered to the saints. 

" Your brother in Christ, 

"J. Hawes." 



CHAPTER XI. 



Lectures. — Recollections of Hartford. — Two Theological Schools in 
Connecticut. — Efforts at Union. 



IN 1854, Dr. Hawes delivered a course of popular 
lectures on his " Ee collections of Hartford." 
It covered the thirty-seven years of his ministry on 
such topics as "Hartford as it Was and Is," "Revi- 
vals in Hartford," "The Pulpit in Hartford," 
"The Churches in Hartford," "A Memorial of the 
Departed." The lectures were full of interest and 
information, and attracted all denominations and all 
classes of the citizens. It was one of the many 
felicitous efforts that marked the ministry of Dr. 
Hawes. / 

A few extracts from the first lecture will indicate 
the spirit and character of the whole : — 

" To one whose memory goeth not back so far as 
the beginning of the period under review, it is quite 
impossible to convey a just idea of the great change 
that has taken place in the general aspect and 
extent of the city. It was then comparatively a 
small village, containing less than one-fourth the 
number of houses and inhabitants it now has. Large 
sections of the city, and those not far removed 

217 



218 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

from. the centre, were open fields when I came here, 
and used as pasture-grounds for cows and horses. 

" The facilities for doing business have been 
augmented to a degree scarcely conceivable by 
those who were not on the stage at the period 
referred to. 

" There were then no steamboats daily plying up 
and down our river ; no railroads passing through 
our city, conveying passengers, and bringing trade 
from afar ; and no telegraph for communicating 
with lightning-speed with distant cities and towns 
of our country. The modes of conveyance from 
one place to another were then extremely tardy 
and tedious. I have myself been fourteen hours in 
going from this city to New Haven by stage. And 
a journey to New York was, indeed, a serious un- 
dertaking. Our merchants usually attempted it but 
twice a year, — in the autumn and spring, — and 
were commonly gone from ten days to a fortnight ; 
and there was sometimes great rejoicing that they 
escaped being cast away on the Sound. 

" The application of steam as a motive power had 
been commenced only a few years before ; and 
the whole matter was regarded by many with great 
jealousy. Even President D wight, it is said, used 
to declaim right eloquently before his classes against 
the use of steam to propel vessels, as a dangerous 
usurpation of Nature's power ; and predicted that 
great disasters would result from it. 

" While business and wealth have so greatly in- 
creased among us, I am happy to state it as the 
opinion of those who have the best means of know- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 219 

ing, that honor and integrity among men of business 
have also been rising, and are, on the whole, much 
above what they formerly were. Doubtless there 
are here now, as there always have been, base men, 
mean, dishonest men, who are always ready to lie 
and cheat, and drive hard bargains, if they can. But 
they are an exception to the general character ; 
they are marked men, not in repute : and every one 
who wishes to be in good standing with the men of 
business in this community feels it to be important 
to maintain a fair and honorable character, a char- 
acter for truth and integrity, in his business trans- 
actions. It is grateful to add, that the accumulation 
of wealth in the city has not, I trust, — certainly 
not as a general fact, — increased the selfishness 
of the people. 

" If there are any who think that there has been 
for many years past a constant deterioration going 
on in the city, and that vice was never more abun- 
dant and shameless than now, I would say for the 
comfort of such, that I saw no evidence, when I 
came here, that I had come to a part of Paradise on 
which the curse of the fall had never lighted ; nor 
did I see any signs that the millennium had begun 
among the people, or was any nearer beginning than 
it is now. 

" Let it be admitted, then, — what, indeed, cannot 
be denied, — that there is among us a large class of 
low, reckless, vicious persons, — as low, reckless, and 
vicious as any that have ever found a habitation here. 
But it must also be admitted, that, in the middling 
and higher classes, there has been a decided im- 



220 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

provement in these latter years in all that is meant 
by good morals. Among these classes there is far 
less gambling than formerly, less profane swearing 
and Sabbath-breaking, less vicious revelry and licen- 
tiousness, a higher degree of respect for religion and 
its institutions, and a more general habit of attend- 
ing public worship. I speak advisedly on this sub- 
ject, and could easily adduce facts in proof of what 
I say. 

" The number of professing Christians, compared 
with the whole population, is larger now than it was 
when I came here. Then, according to an estimate 
I made six years ago, — and it cannot have varied 
much since, — the number of professors of religion 
was twenty per cent, or two in every ten of the 
population : now it is thirty per cent, or three in 
every ten. Nor has the increase been in mere num- 
bers. There is, on the whole, an improved state of 
religion observable among us. . . . Take the popu- 
lation who properly belong to Hartford, and a larger 
proportion of them attend public worship than in 
any other city of the land. . . . The tone of Chris- 
tian liberality, as indicated in a readiness to give for 
the promotion of objects of benevolence, is greatly 
in advance of what it was formerly. There is a far 
more kindly, catholic feeling manifested by different 
denominations of Christians towards each other than 
there was when I entered the ministry here. There 
is less of exclusiveness and sectarianism, less of a 
disposition to proselyte and make inroads upon each 
other, and a far greater readiness to concede com- 
mon rights, and to unite in the promotion of common 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 221 

objects. This is certainly a sign for good. Would 
that there were no exceptions remaining among 
us!" 

The existence of two theological schools of the 
same denomination in the little State of Connecti- 
cut was a trouble to Dr. Hawes. In 1854, the 
practicability of a union was proposed by him. He 
conferred with other friends of sacred learning on 
the subject, and found the idea welcomed by some 
of the directors of both schools. Whatever reasons 
may have led to the founding of a second institu- 
tion, he felt had, in a great degree, ceased to 
operate. Dr. Tyler and Dr. Taylor were still living, 
it is true ; but the heat of controversy had passed 
away. Taylorism and Tylerism were no longer par- 
tisan watchwords. Issues of vital moment had been 
joined with the common enemy, which required the 
combining of the evangelic forces. Dr. Hawes felt, 
that if some common ground could be agreed on, 
which, while it would leave room for the play of 
minor unessential diversities, would shun rival asperi- 
ties, and foster harmony in the defence of foundation- 
principles and the maintenance of more effectively 
aggressive movements, it would be a saving of 
expenditure, and a great increase of moral strength. 
He said, " One set of teachers can do the work in 
this field as well as two, and with a saving of nearly 
one-half the laborers for other parts of the field. 
They can instruct classes of thirty or fifty with 
equal success, and more courage and comfort than 
classes of only eight or ten. One fully-endowed 



222 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

institution will be better for Connecticut than two 
feeble and partially-endowed ones • and the churches 
will never adequately endow both." 

The first step towards a union was taken, at the 
instance of Dr. Hawes, in October, 1855. The sub- 
ject was brought up at a special meeting of the 
trustees of the Theological Institute of Connecticut 
to secure more fully its objects. A committee 
on the question of union was appointed ; and consul- 
tation with the friends of the institute, in the State 
and out of it, disclosed, on the part of not a few, a 
feeling in favor of union. 

At a second meeting of the trustees the follow- 
ing month, a plan was adopted and submitted by a 
committee of conference to the corporation of Yale 
College. The main features of the plan were, — 
first, the recognized validity of the creed and 
charter of the institute, as on this rested the legal 
possession of the funds ; second, the union of the 
two boards, — much as the trustees and visitors are 
connected in the Andover Seminary, and the corpo- 
ration and overseers in Harvard University ; third, 
the election of professors by the board of the insti- 
tute, and their appointment by the corporation. 

To these principles of union there was found no 
legal objection. At a meeting of the committee with 
the clerical members of the corporation, the overture 
from the institute was considered, and regarded 
with favor. No legal bar to the banns appeared on 
either side ; nor did the majority feel that there 
were any doctrinal obstacles. But, as Dr. Taylor 
was understood to entertain objections to the me as- 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 223 

ure, the conclusion reached was, " There are diffi- 
culties in the way of present action and union." 

At a meeting of the trustees of the institute in 
February, 1856, on report of the committee of 
conference, they " recognize with pleasure the fact 
that so many of the clerical fellows were ready 
to accept the creed of the institute as a basis of 
union," and also that they " see nothing further to 
be done." 

This result was a serious disappointment to Dr. 
Hawes ; and he felt it the more when there was 
found to be — what he had been quite sure of before 
— such a measure of theological agreement, and no 
legal or local obstruction. 

But he did not abandon his hope of some time 
seeing the object accomplished. At a time when 
the union of Christian forces was the watchword 
in so many denominations that have been divided ; 
when our own churches, East and West, were 
being moved in a national council to declare their 
united and unanimous adherence to the faith held 
by the fathers, as embodied in the old confessions 
acknowledged at Boston in 1648 and 1680, and at 
Saybrook in 1708, — in such times and tendencies, 
and more important issues, Dr. Hawes felt that two 
such competing institutions so near to each other, 
and occupying so much common ground, could not 
both receive such endowments as they would need, 
and could not accomplish so much for the Church 
as would be secured by one that was fully en- 
dowed. He felt so strongly on this subject, that 
he remarked to a friend, that, if he could be instru- 



224 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

mental in securing the union of the rival seminaries, 
he should regard it as one of the greatest works 
of his life. 

When therefore, in 1864, the removal of the 
institute from East Windsor to Hartford was under 
consideration, he deemed it a fit time -for again 
calling up the question. A committee was appointed 
at a meeting of the clerical members of the corpo- 
ration to renew the conference. Dr. Hawes was 
chairman of this committee. 

The plan suggested to this committee was some- 
what different from that submitted by the trustees 
of the institute nine years before : — 

" They shall appoint their professors, and we ours; 
and the two sets, as far as rights are concerned 
within the joint seminary, shall be on an entire 
equality as it regards teaching and every profes- 
sional right, exactly as if the seminaries were amal- 
gamated, or constituted an absolute unity. 

" We will give all students who resort here the 
same privileges and rights, and will give the same 
use to all parties of all buildings, rooms, lecture- 
rooms, libraries, &c, that our students and profess- 
ors have now. 

" All details in the working of the system to be 
arranged by a joint committee, consisting of an 
equal number selected by each party." 

Dr. Hawes sent a communication to the trustees 
of the institute, requesting a conference. At their 
next meeting, the board of trustees made the fol- 
lowing response : — 

" We accept as a favorable omen the fraternal 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 225 

spirit which appears in the communication before us, 
and should rejoice were it in our power to present 
to the churches the picture of unity which it seeks 
to effect. But our way seems to lead in another di- 
rection. As the guardians of funds consecrated to 
the cause of sound theological instruction, fidelity 
to our trust demands of us efforts to enlarge the use- 
fulness of those funds in the direction indicated by 
the honored donors. There are also providential in- 
dications of so marked a character as to encourage 
the hope that our seminary has an important work 
to do in the future. There are also difficulties of so 
formidable a character in the way of the consumma- 
tion of the proposed union, that we do not feel en- 
couraged in the effort ; and would therefore respect- 
fully decline the overture from the corporation of 
Yale College." 

The plan submitted from New Haven did not ex- 
actly meet the idea of Dr. Hawes. It proposed 
rather a closer local proximity than a union of the 
rival seminaries. Both had at that time, or thought 
they had, brightening prospects of extension and 
usefulness. In view of these prospects, Dr. Hawes 
writes, — 

" They only increase, in my mind, the desirable- 
ness and importance of uniting them. I do not 
want to see two thoroughly-manned armadas en- 
gaged against each other, or even drawing so near 
as to keep their guns run out of the port-holes, 
ready to fire upon each other whenever any cause, 
fancied or real, may occur to provoke attack. This 
is rather warlike language ; but the subject to which 



226 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

it relates is warlike. I am for peace on broad and 
equal terms." 

He had felt much encouraged in his efforts on ac- 
count of the doctrinal harmonies disclosed by the 
correspondence. Most of the New-Haven gentle- 
men were by no means adherents to the peculiarities 
of Dr. Taylor's system, and the East-Windsor Con- 
fession was found acceptable to the clerical fellows 
of Yale College as a basis of union. This second 
failure was, therefore, a great grief as well as dis- 
appointment to the good man. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Mrs. Hawes's Jottings respecting their Children. — Dr. Hawes's Letters to 
his Son. — The Son's Settlement in the Ministry, and Sudden Death. 



AT the period to which Dr. Hawes had arrived, 
he had been blessed in the birth of six 
children, and been called to the burial of five. Of 
the first his wife prepared a brief memorial, pub- 
lished by the American Sunday-school Union, under 
the title of "Louisa, my First-Born." 

The jottings, by Mrs. Hawes, of some of these 
cardinal events, — births, baptisms, and burials, — 
present a picture that no art can adorn. 

" Aug. 7, 1819. — A dear little daughter was given 
me ; and on the 8th I presented it to my dear hus- 
band, whom I once more embraced after a painful 
absence. What a moment was that when my first 
infant was placed in my arms ! It seems to me 
that eternity can never efface from my memory the 
impressions of that hour. 

"Oct. 17. — Dedicated our little one to God in 
baptism.; whom we named Louisa. 

" April 16, 1821. — The Lord has given us another 
daughter, — a lovely child. 

227 



228 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

u July 15. — Dedicated our little one to God in 
baptism, and called her name Mary Elizabeth. 

"Feb. 17, 1823. — Another daughter, — a dead 
child. I now know what are the pains and the dis- 
appointment of a birth and a death united. 

"Sept. 23. — Our dear Louisa sickened on the 11th; 
and on the 20th, at half-past ten in the evening, she 
died, aged four years and one month. I was by her 
side. * The whiteness of death was on her counte- 
nance, and her eyes turned up to heaven. Her little 
arms were thrown out on one side : one moved a lit- 
tle. Not a feature was distorted, and not a struggle 
attended her dying moments. 

" July 28, 1824. — A little son was given to us at 
four o'clock on the afternoon of this day, whom we 
named Thomas Hooker. 

"Aug. 21, 1825.— The little child was taken 
from us by Him who gave it, after an illness of four 
weeks. His father being absent, it was ordered, in 
infinite wisdom, that I should bear alone the suffer- 
ings of the painful scene. 

" May 29, 1826. — Goodness and mercy have fol- 
lowed me all the days of my life. Another dear 
child was given us March 10. 

" July 9. — To-day, in the house of God, we 
dedicated our infant son, whom we named Thomas 
Hooker. It is just a year since, in the same place, 
and from the same font, we dedicated the dear child 
whose name is transferred to this one. 

" July 23, 1828. — The birthday of our third son, 
Joel Erskine. May the God of Abraham bless the 
child ! " 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 229 

The following passages are from a sermon preached 
on the departure from earth of one of these little 
ones : — 

" Is it the design of affliction to purify my heart, 
and fit me for an eternal weight of glory? and 
shall I murmur and repine under the chastening of 
Providence ? Have I not often earnestly prayed 
that I might be made more heavenly in my temper? 
and shall I complain when God answers my prayer ? 
The means which he employs are not, indeed, such 
as my foolish heart would have chosen ; but they 
are such as Infinite Wisdom sees to be best adapted 
to my case. In the trials I am called to endure, no 
strange thing has happened unto me ; for c whom 
the Lord loveth he chasteneth.' The ' great cloud 
of witnesses ' who have gone before me to heaven 
went there through much tribulation; and shall I 
be unwilling to tread in the path which led them to 
glory, or to endure the trials by which they procured 
their crown ? 

"If we have devoted our children to God in bap- 
tism, and endeavored to train them up for him ; if 
we have seen in them a tenderness of conscience, a 
love for religious instruction, and a desire to be led 
in the right way, — may we not hope that these were 
some of the first-fruits of the Spirit, which are now 
maturing in the kingdom of glory ? I see nothing 
in the Bible to preclude this hope ; and I think the 
general principles of the divine government justify 
our indulging; it. 

" Cheerfully, then, should we part with these 



230 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

lambs of Christ's flock. They have suddenly entered 
the fold, and are safe from all the dangers and sins 
of this mortal state. In anguish of spirit we cried, 
' Lord, spare the child ! ' He did, but not as we 
meant. He snatched it from danger, and took it 
home. And- would it be kind or right to wish that 
this young inhabitant of heaven should be degraded 
to earth again ? Let me rather be thankful for the 
pleasing hope, that, although God loves my child too 
well to permit it to return to me, he will, ere long, 
bring me to the same dwelling-place of peace and 

joy." 

Of the beautiful life of Mary the mother gave a 
charming account in the memoir of Mrs. Van Len- 
nep, so well known in Christian biography. 

Only one of the six children remained at this 
period, — the youngest, a promising son, and the 
hope of his parents. A few letters of the father to 
this son will show with what solicitude and affection 
he was led along in his preparation for an active and 
useful life. The first were written while Erskine 
was at school at Easthampton. 

" Monday Morning, March 15, 1847. 

" My dear Son, — Your mother has crowded me 
into this little corner, and I have room to say only 
a word. I shall write you more at length in a day 
or two.. At .present, I say these things, — 1. Take 
more exercise, or you will lose your health, and be- 
come good for nothing. This is indispensable. You 
can study more in one hour with a mind made clear 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 231 

and bright hj exercise than in four hours with a mind 
dull and sluggish for the want of it. 2. Take care 
in regard to your food, both as to kind and quan- 
tity. One who uses his brains much must use his 
jaws less. The great Montesquieu had a rule, 
never to eat to the full, but always to rise from the 
table a little hungry. 3. Think what you want to 
be, and then resolve to be just that thing. With 
God's blessing, you may be just what you reason- 
ably wish and resolve to be. Eemember that you 
are the artificer of your own character. If you mar 
or spoil it, the shame, the blame, must be yours„ 
4. Have no more to do with despondency. Be con- 
tented to do what you can, and to be what you 
must ; and leave the rest. 5. Be kind and attentive 
to all around you, — to the humblest and lowest as 
well as the highest and best. This will act most 
happily on your character, and gain for you the 
love and esteem of all who know you. 6. More 
than all, take care of your immortal interests. 
Prize above all earthly good the friendship of God. 
Seek it with all your heart, and it will be yours. 
" Your affectionate father, 

"J. Hawes." 

"May 20. 

"My dear Son, — ... A few young persons are 
in the habit of calling to see me on the great con- 
cern of salvation: some indulge hope, and appear 
well. May you, my dear son, have a part in 
this infinite blessing ! There is nothing in this 
world worth living for without this. Nay, life 



232 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

without this must, in the end, prove a terrible 
curse. 

" While I desire, above all things, that you possess 
the one thing needful, I am not unmindful of your 
happiness in other respects. I think of your health, 
— take good care of that, — exercise, food, sleep ; I 
think of your scholarship, — be accurate, thorough, 
systematic ; I think of your manners, — have them 
easy, conciliatory, pleasant ; I think of your temper, 
your disposition, and habits of mind, — be patient 
and kind ; do not complain of others, nor find fault 
without- good cause ; do not submit to low spirits or 
discouragement ; do what you can, and as well as 
you can, and never fear for results. 

" Affectionately your father." 

In the autumn of 1847, Erskine entered the fresh- 
man-class in Yale College. 

"Hartford, Oct. 5, 1847. 

" My dear Son, — I received the first letter from 
you as a member of Yale College yesterday. I was 
much gratified that you wrote in so cheerful a tone. 
It is an omen for good ; and I am ready to hope that 
you will not only be contented and happy in col- 
lege, but become also one of the brilliant scholars 
whom you think may be found in your class some 
three years hence. I trust it may be so. I see 
nothing to prevent, provided you have courage, 
begin right, and hold on in a long, steady pull. 
Every thing, as I told you, in respect to your col- 
lege-course, depends on your setting out. Do well 
the first year, and there is not much danger for 
the rest." 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES.' 233 

"Hartford, Dec. 28, 1847. 

u My dear Son, — We were very glad to hear 
from you, and especially to be permitted to infer, 
from the cheerful tone in which you write, that 
your health is holding out, and that you are getting 
on so well. You have every thing to encourage 
you, and nothing which need give you a moment's 
anxiety, if you will only watch your habits of eat- 
ing, sleeping, and exercise, and just do as well as 
you are able in pursuing your studies. Your heart 
is my first concern, and your health next. These 
two secured, — one in the love of God, and the other 
in confirmed vigor, — I would readily dismiss all my 
anxieties, nor entertain a doubt of your success in 
college, and of your respectability, usefulness, and 
happiness in the world. 

" The sad news from the college had reached us, 
before we received your letter. I have heard of 
nothing for many a day which so shocked me. The 
spirit of those young men, carrying deadly weapons, 
and aiming them at the officers of college for detect- 
ing them in villany, seems to me perfectly infernal. 
I hope, for the good of the colleges, for the public 
safety, full justice will be done to them. I trust 
my request is being fulfilled. The reception of the 
memoir is all that we could wish. I think it will do 
much good. I. thank God for such a daughter ; and, 
when the family is gathered in heaven, oh that my 
son may not be wanting ! " 

The two following letters, on a matter which 
lay nearest the father's heart, explain themselves. 



234 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

They are models in translucent, paternal affection 
and pastoral theology. 

"Hartford, Jan. 25, 1848. 

" My dear Son, — I cannot express to you the 
feelings awakened * in my mind by being made 
acquainted with the fact that your attention is 
turned in earnest to the greatest concern of your 
being. Your case has already been spread before 
God with many tears ; and now, with much anxiety 
and trembling, I write you a few thoughts, which, I 
pray the Father of mercies, may assist you to lay 
hold on eternal life. I am glad to learn that you 
have been to see Dr. Taylor. I have confidence in 
him that he will give you good and safe counsel. 
This is, in your case, a matter of infinite importance. 
A wrong step in the outset may prove fatal. My 
great anxiety is that you may know your heart, — 
know where alone you can find help. It is not in 
any arm of flesh to save you ; and the sooner and 
the more deeply you feel this, the better. The 
heart is desperately wicked, hard, and blind; and 
this, far from being an excuse, only increases your 
guilt in God's sight, and renders your case utterly 
hopeless, only as he may see fit to interpose in your 
behalf. To him, therefore, you are to go, just as 
you are, — poor, guilty, lost, — confess all this before 
him, owning your utter unworthiness of his favor, 
and submitting yourself to him forever. Be willing 
to see and to acknowledge the worst of your case. 
Throw away all excuses, all apologies ; justify God 
while you condemn yourself; and remember it is 
mercy, only mercy, that can pardon and save you. 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 235 

Kemember, too, that mercy, mercy in abundance, 
is freely offered you in Christ. Are you willing 
to receive mercy? — receive it as one justly con- 
demned and lost ? Here is the turning-point. God, 
your heavenly Father, waits to welcome your return 
to him. He invites you with all the tenderness 
of his infinite love to come unto him and be saved. 
Go then, my dear son, just where the Holy Spirit 
would lead you, — to Christ, — and receive him as 
your Saviour and your all. This is your first, this 
is your great duty. Do not, I pray you, put it off, 
or think you must wait till you can mate yourself 
better, or somehow merit the divine favor. This 
you can never do. You must come to the Saviour 
just as you are, and pray that he would make you 
what he would have you to be. 

"I commend you to God: it is all I can do. I 
know he is able and willing to save you ; and, if you 
are not saved, the fault must be all your own. 

" Do not remit your daily duties in study : it is 
best to keep these along as far as you can. You 
will not, I presume, be in danger of conversing 
with many different persons on the state of your 
mind. This will only distract your attention. God 
and the Bible are your best guides. Do not give 
over because hope does not come at once. Strive, 
strive, strive to enter in at the strait gate during 
life, if need be ; for all is at stake." 

" Hartford, Feb. 7, 1848. 

" My dear Son, — I cannot tell you all the joy I 
feel at the change which you hope has taken place 



236 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

in your feelings and views on the subject of religion. 
I have said, when thinking and speaking of it in 
the family, that, if I had a thousand worlds at rny 
disposal, I would account them as the dust in the 
balance in comparison with the infinite, never- 
failing good which has come to you, if indeed you 
'have passed from death unto life.' My great de- 
sire now is, that you may be a thorough, lohole- 
hearted Christian. And such you may and will be 
if you set out right, and determine at the beginning 
that Christ shall be in you and for you, all and 
in all. You say you wish you could sit down and 
converse with me. I greatly wish I could do the 
same with you ; and so strongly do I feel on this 
point, that I have several times been almost ready 
to take the cars and make you a visit. But this I 
cannot do just now ; though I hope I may see you 
before long. In the mean time, let me say to you 
a few things which may be of importance in your 
present state of mind. 

u In the first place, be careful that you stand on 
right ground : have no mistake in your foundation. 
If God's character and will and service be pleasant 
to you, and you truly desire in all things to honor 
your Saviour, then rejoice, and be humble and 
thankful ; for this is evidence that you have entered 
the right way. 

" Then do not imagine that the work is done. If 
it has indeed been begun, it is but begun ; and you 
will have need every day of new supplies of grace 
to help you on in the divine life. Therefore speak 
you every day to God in prayer, and let him speak 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 237 

to you every day through the medium of his Word. 
Bene orasse est bene studitisse was a maxim of 
Luther ; and it is worthy to be written on the study- 
table of every student in Yale College. You must 
not be surprised if some changes come over your 
feelings, and cloud your views: this, I believe, is 
the experience of all young Christians just setting 
out in the divine life. If, when a dark day comes, 
you still feel as Bunyan's Pilgrim did when he fell 
into the Slough of Despond, — that you cannot go 
back, but must go forward, — there is no fear for 
the result: you will come out on the right side, 
and your face will be towards the Celestial City still. 
Think, too, when a cloud passes over the sun, that 
the sun exists and shines still ; and, when the cloud 
passes off, you will see it as clear and bright as 
ever. Watch against all sin, and endeavor to keep 
a conscience void of offence in all things. This will 
fill you with sweet music, and make you joyful 
all the clay. Kemember, further, that Christ is a 
whole Saviour ; and the more filially and entirely you 
rely on him as your Saviour, the better it will be 
with your soul. # Always think of God as a father 
infinitely kind and merciful ; and come to him in 
every time of need, with entire confidence that he 
looks upon you in love, and will never leave nor 
forsake you. Converse freely with warm-hearted 
and judicious Christians. Intercourse with such 
will be useful to you in many ways. Strive to do 
good to others : this is the way to get good yourself. 
" You may think I have written you a sermon 
rather than a letter. No matter: you have the 



238 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

thoughts I wish to suggest to you at this time. 
Let me know all your wants ; and, as far as prac- 
ticable, I will most cheerfully supply them. You are 
my only son ; and I shall be happy in striving to 
make you happy, useful, and good. 

"Your affectionate father." 

" Hartford, June 25, 1849. 

u My dear Son, — I have been trying, ever since 
you returned to college, to find time to write you a 
long letter, but have hitherto been prevented ; and 
now I can drop you only a brief line. In regard to 
your joining a secret society, I have many and 
decided objections to it. In the first place, I think 
secret societies are, as a general thing, wrong in 
principle, and have usually been found sources of 
evil. Next, I know the officers of college disapprove 
of such societies, and greatly prefer that the students 
should not belong to them. Then they are, as I 
am informed, a cause of no little jealousy and bick- 
ering among the members of different societies in 
college. The expense of time and money forms 
another objection. Furthermore, I am told by those 
who have belonged to such societies, that they never 
derived any good from them, and would not advise 
any friend of theirs to join them. And, finally, I 
know of nothing that can be said to counterbalance 
these objections. I say, then, if you are clear, do 
not be entrapped in this fool's snare ; and, if you are 
entangled, get clear as quick as you can. 
"Affectionately your father, 

"J. Hawes." 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 239 

" Hartford, Jan. 22, 1850. 

" My dear Son, — Though I have written five let- 
ters to-day 7 and am not a little fatigued by various 
other duties, I cannot forbear to send you a few 
lines in answer /to your unexpected but very accept- 
able letter, just received. I hope it will make no 
other than a good impression when I say that I 
have never received a letter from you which gave 
me more satisfaction. The manner in which you re- 
fer to our conversation on Sabbath evening convinces 
me that you received the suggestions I felt it my 
duty to make in a right spirit, and mean to profit 
by them. You cannot suppose that they could be 
dictated by any thing but the kindest feelings towards 
yourself, and the most earnest wishes for your hap- 
piness. And now I wish you to feel assured that 
your treatment of the whole subject has wiped from 
my mind every unpleasant impression ; and I look 
with brighter hope than ever to your fulfilling all my 
reasonable expectations respecting you. 

" I trust you will cherish the good purposes you 
have formed in regard to the cultivation of your 
Christian character. Depend upon it, this is much 
more intimately connected with your happiness and 
usefulness in life than you are probably aware. And 
then in regard to your being or not being popular : 
let that give you no trouble. Deserve esteem, and 
you will always have as many tokens of it as you 
can safely bear. Take an interest in the welfare of 
others, and this will most surely engage them to 
take an interest in you. Throw yourself out a little 
more ; and strive to be active, in some way, in doing 



240 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

good. The time is approaching when you will have 
to launch forth upon the sea of life ; and you should 
begin now to learn how to adjust your compass, 
work your sails, and manage your helm, if you mean 
to make a prosperous voyage, and enter with a rich 
cargo the haven to which you are bound. 

" I am glad you are brought to a decision in re- 
gard to preparing for your exhibition. I should be 
sorry to have you fail to perform on that occasion. 
I like the subject you mention very well. The only 
difficulty I feel is in regard to your being able to 
compass it in a piece of ten or twelve minutes. 
I have thought of another one, which has run a good 
deal on my mind, as one suited to your taste : it is, 
' Marius sitting among the ruins of Carthage.' You 
can find his life in your classical dictionary, and in 
other books to which you can have access. Mr. 

C , however, says he likes your first subject better. 

" Your affectionate father, 

"J. Hawes. 

" P. S. — Write me when you can, and write me 
very freely ; and then I shall answer you in the same 
manner. Remember me, if you please, to your chum. 
Ask him if he remembers Luther's maxim in regard 
to study." 

" Hartford, July 23, 1850. 

"My dear Son, — I have but a moment I can 
snatch from my duties ; and I improve it by sending 
you a birthday salutation. Twenty-two years to- 
day, you first opened your eyes upon the light of 
this world ; and, since that time, you have measured 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 241 

off nearly one-third of the allotted period of human 
life. How quickly has that period passed away ! 
Yes, my son; and the other two periods of equal 
length, should your life be spared, will seem to you 
much shorter, and, in your estimation, fly away 
much more rapidly, than the one you have just 
closed. It has been one subject of thanksgiving to 
God, this morning, that you have been preserved to 
us so long ; that you have enjoyed so large a meas- 
ure of health ; that you have succeeded so well in 
your college-course, and have the prospect of com- 
pleting your studies with so much honor to your- 
self, and satisfaction to your friends. You have, 
indeed, many things to be thankful for, as we have 
on your account ; and I trust this day will not be 
suffered to close without your occupying some por- 
tion of it in gratefully recalling the mercies of the 
past, and forming good purposes in respect to the fu- 
ture. Think of your faults, whatever they are, and 
resolve to correct them ; of your sins, and repent of 
them ; of your virtues, and set yourself to a more 
earnest purpose to cultivate them. There is no 
other way to get on safely and well in this life but 
by pausing at frequent intervals and reviewing the 
ground we have passed over, and resolving to amend 
our mistakes ; and nothing, let me assure you, makes 
so great a difference between one man and another 
as the habit of calm, serious self-inspection. The 
time is near at hand when you must quit the calm 
retreat of college-life, and launch forth on the 
stormy sea of this world's affairs. My wishes in re- 
gard to the course you shall take cannot be unknown 



242 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

to you. But in this matter you must, of course, be 
left to choose for yourself. I should be sorry to 
have you think of the sacred office if your heart 
were not drawn to it in decided preference of any 
other calling ; while it would, at the same time, dis- 
appoint and grieve me if you should turn away from 
this to either of the other professions. My earnest 
and frequent prayer to God is, that you may rise to 
a higher and more decided tone of devotedness to 
Christ and his cause, and that his love may constrain 
you to a perfect willingness to spend and be spent 
in promoting his kingdom on earth. In deciding 
the question here adverted to, keep in view the 
whole of your existence ; and resolve to do that 
which will be most for God's glory and your own 
good, whether now, or never so many myriads of 
ages hence. Peace be with you, my dear son ! May 
every blessing attend you in life, and every joy 
crown your immortal existence in the future world ! 
So prays, now and ever, the heart of your affection- 
ate father, "J. Hawes." 

The son followed his father's advice, and never 
joined a secret society of any kind. He states his 
objections as follows : " 1. They are secret. Every 
thing worth having will bear to be known. 2. They 
are not approved by my parents and judicious 
friends. 3. The officers in college are not generally 
in favor of them." 

From New Haven, Erskine went to Andover for 
his theological course ; whither, for the same pur- 
pose, his father went, just forty years before. 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 243 

"Hartford, July 14, 1853. 

" My dear Son, — You have been expecting to 
hear from me, I presume, before this time, in answer 
to yours of the 4th inst. ; and I have been intending 
to write you, but have put it off from day to day in 
the hope that I should find time to fill a sheet. I 
despair of that ; and therefore send you this brief 
note to assure you of my love, to express my satis- 
faction with the general tone of your last letter, and 
also to convey to you a small sum to meet your 
present wants. Call when you have need ; and I 
shall not be backward to answer your request, so far 
as I am able. 

"I am glad that you a»e giving attention to 
speaking, if you have a good master. It is of more 
importance to read and speak well than most young 
men are aware. I would advise you to engage in 
this matter with earnest purpose to make yourself a 
good speaker • which you can be, if you only deter- 
mine upon it. What good can come of filling up 
a vessel with choice wine, if there is no way to draw 
it out ? or of what use to spend life in getting 
learning, if you have no skill to communicate it 
sufficiently for the good of others ? A better book 
you could scarcely read than the £ Life of Wesley.' 
You need not adopt his errors, nor imitate his faults ; 
but his energy, his zeal, his persevering, devoted., 
self-denying piety, are worthy of all praise, and 
cannot fail, if duly considered, to exert a most fa- 
vorable influence on the heart and life. 

" How are things going at Andover ? Is it ex- 
pected that Prof. E will leave ? We are all 



244 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

well. Mr. C 's brother comes home to-clay. He, 

I suppose, will close his long membership in our 
family next week. We shall greatly miss him. 
" Affectionately your father, 

"J. Hawes." 

"Hartford, Sept. 5, 1853. 

" My dear Son, — Worn and weary by the labors 
of the Sabbath, and, just this hour, having a marriage 
ceremony to perform, and to hasten away to the cars 
for Middletown, I have time and strength only to 
say that I have enclosed what you wished, with the 
expression of my thanks to God that you are finish- 
ing your first year of theological study in good 
health, and with brightened prospects, I trust, of 
usefulness in the Church ; and my hearty desires that 
you may complete your course with equal satisfac- 
tion, and with still larger accessions of all that is 
needed to fit you to be a good minister of Jesus 
Christ. That is a long sentence ; is it not ? I fear 
you may not be able to analyze it. You see, from 
the first part, what you may expect if you become 
a minister ; in the middle, my cheerful readiness to 
comply with your requests for material aid ; and in 
the close, my joy at your success in life, and my 
warm desires for your best interests here and for- 
ever." 

"Hartford, May 24, 1854. 

" I have nearly filled my sheet speaking of my 
poor self, and have left little space to say any 
thing to you. I am sorry your mind is undecided 
as to how you will spend the next year. I cannot 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 245 

look with favor on your turning aside to teach. I 
fear it might result in turning you aside from your 
profession. I see no necessity for it in your circum- 
stances. I have the means, and I expect to furnish 
them, so far as needed, to help you through your 
preparatory course : so that you need give yourself 
no uneasiness on this point. I wish there were 
more of Paul's necessity laid upon you to preach the 
gospel. Were this the case, the difficulties which 
now rise so like mountains before you would vanish 
out of your sight; and neither hunger nor cold, 
nor prisons nor stripes, could keep you from pressing 
straightforward to the pulpit. What you want, my 
son, as I have often told you, is more confidence, 
courage, force of will. Settle the one thing for 
which you mean to live, and then concentrate all 
your energies on that. — But I must close. I shall 
write you again soon in a different strain. We are 
all in usual health, except myself. Love to Mr. Ca- 
pron. Tell him to make haste slowly, but still to 
make haste. Let him not think himself invulnera- 
ble. Who stronger than I once ? who weaker now ? 
Peace be with you both, and an active, well-directed, 
useful life. 

" Your affectionate father, 

"J. Hawes." 

"Hartford, June 27, 1854. 

" My dear Son, — In my wanderings from place 
to place in quest of health, my thoughts have often 
been upon you ; though it is a long time since I have 
written you 



246 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

" The truth is, I find myself in a poor state for 
correspondence in my journeyings, — wearied when 
I stop, and occupied by little incessant incidentals 
when at home. In regard to the state of my health, 
there is, I think, a marked improvement ; though the 
main difficulty is far from being removed. Short- 
ness of breath, weakness and exhaustion if I put 
myself to any effort, tell me that I am a wounded 
man \ and though the wound, I trust, is not mortal, 
but is slowly healing, the time is distant, I fear, if 
indeed it ever comes, when I shall be restored to 
my wonted health and vigor. I hope still to enjoy 
comfortable health, and to be able to do something 
more in the service of my Saviour. The trial is to 
me a great one ; and I often say to my friends and 
brethren in the ministry, Let no one say that even his 
strongest part is invulnerable. Who was ever blessed 
with healthier or stronger lungs than myself? yet a 
half-hour's exposure has for nearly three months 
made me weak as a child. Take care of your health 
while you have it, and use it every day in the 
feeling that you may lose it to-morrow. 

" I am at home this week to attend the anni- 
versary of our female seminary, which occurs next 
Thursday evening. The address is to be by Dr. 
Brainerd of Philadelphia. Where I shall go next is 
not settled ; perhaps to Saratoga, to spend a few 
weeks before the commencement at Yale, at which 
I hope to be present. 

a j n re g ar d to your leaving Andover to meet your 
class at commencement, I think well of the plan, 
provided you can arrange with the professor as to 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 247 

the matter of your examination. You will never 
see so many of your class together again; and I 
trust you will be gratified in being permitted to 
meet them. 

" Peace be with you, my son F May God bless you 
abundantly with his presence, and fit you to do 
great good in the world ! The same to Mr. Capron. 
" Your affectionate father, 

"J. Hawes." 

During his third year at Andover, Erskine pro- 
posed to come home and be examined for licensure 
by the association with which his father was con- 
nected. In regard to the course pursued in the 
examination, the father writes, " It is very simple, 
and, in my opinion, very superficial. I fear that 
they would let you off too easily, unless I should 
take you up to supply their lack of thoroughness. 

" You may come home to be licensed on one con- 
dition ; and that is, that you stay and preach for me 
in the lecture-room or in the church, as you may 
prefer. I like the plan of your sermon, which you 
sketched in one of your letters, very much ; and, if 
you fill it up as well as you have shown the outline, 
it will be a good sermon. I hope you have taken 
aim in it, and resolved to make it do execution. 
Want of this is the great defect in the sermons 
of most young preachers, and, indeed, of old ones 
too. They do not take aim : they preach without 
an object. 

" Your affectionate father, 

"J. Hawes." 



248 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

" Hartford, Feb. 26, 1855. 

" My dear Son, — You may thank a cold that is 
upon me that I have taken a sheet to answer yours 
of the 19th inst. just now. I am so pressed with 
cares, and, withal, am so little fond of letter-writing, 
even to those whom I love most, that, if I were in 
usual health, I fear your letter would go where 
many others you have written me go, — into the 
archives of your mother's bureau. 

"I am much gratified, that, after so long a time, 
you are beginning to think it is best to pay some 
attention to the matter of delivery. I have been 
anxious, you know, on this point ; seeing, as I 
thought I did, that you did not attach sufficient 
importance to it. You know how Demosthenes 
regarded it as the first, second, and third thing in a 
public speaker. And so it is; and I have been 
thinking for some time that I would make you a 
present of fifty dollars, on condition that you put 
yourself under some competent teacher who should 
break up your habits of speaking, and make them 
what they may and ought to be. There is no good 
sense in a man's spending ten years in filling his 
head with knowledge, and caring nothing as to the 
manner in which he shall get it out for use before 
the public. What say you to my proposal ? You 
may do something to improve your speaking by 
reading or declaiming alone in your room ; but you 
may in this way be about as likely to retain your 
faults as to correct them. What } r ou want is some 
one well skilled in the matter to take you in hand, 
analyze your faults, make you see them, and show 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 249 

you a better way. Who there is that you can get to 
undertake this, I do not know. But, if there is first 
a will, the way will be found; and, as the subject 
is now before your mind, I hope your impressions, 
and my suggestions as to its importance, may lead 
you, first to loill, and then to find the way. 

" I think, on the whole, you did right in declining 
to preach in the Free Church in Andover. First 
impressions are important; and I do not care to 
have you appear in the pulpit till you are so 
equipped as to put yourself off for what you are 
worth. Your danger is, that you will fall below 
that mark : first, because you do not think there 
is as much of you as there is ; and, second, because 
you will not take pains to correct those defects, 
which, if you retain, will detract from your real 
merits, and set you, in public estimation, below what 
you should be. One of the most effectual ways to 
hide talents is, not to wrap them in a napkin, but to 
wrap them in a blanket of faults, and label them 
with false marks. And, in point of wrong, I clo not 
know which is worse. I want to have you pay at- 
tention to another subject; I believe I have before 
conversed with you respecting it : I mean copious- 
ness and freedom in public prayer. The best means 
I know of acquiring these is to have a warm, living, 
outgushing piety within. But much may be clone 
by making prayer a matter of study. Students in 
theology are apt to be sadly negligent in this matter. 
There ought to be several lectures delivered in your 
seminary to the students on this subject. Perhaps 
this is the fact : if so, I rejoice. 



250 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

" But enough in the way of lecturing you for 
this time. I have a word to say on a subject of 
great interest to yourself, and about which I suppose 
you have some thoughts. I have a person in my 
eye, whom, of all others I am acquainted with, I 
should prefer to have you choose as a companion, — 
kind, affectionate, judicious, amiable in her person 
and in her manners, intelligent, well educated, 
truly pious, and devoted to doing good. Her age 
is less than yours : but the disparity is not so great 
as to be an objection, — certainly not on your part; 
I should hope, not on hers. Who is it? Just the 
one, I suppose, you would not choose. , The more I 
know of her, the more I love and admire her charac- 
ter ; and, could you have her as your help-meet, I 
should be most happy myself, as I should consider 
you provided for in this respect in the best possible 
manner. Think of it, and decide thoughtfully and 
prayerfully what you should do. You will, of 
course, burn this when you have read it. All well. 
" Your affectionate father, 

"J. Hawes." 

"April 20, 1857; two, p.m. 

ft I am sorry you find no more freedom in your 
devotional exercises. I can see no good cause for 
it. It seems to me you must have some wrong view 
as to the design of prayer. It is, not to talk elo- 
quently or originally or finely to Gocl, but to 
breathe forth the desires of the heart in such simple 
expressions, and warm feelings, and tender tones 
of voice, as are suitable to the position of a poor 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 251 

needy creature seeking blessings from God on him- 
self and others equally poor and needy. I have 
often mentioned to you what I supposed would 
afford you much assistance in the exercise, — the 
filling of your mind with Scriptures appropriate to be 
used in prayer, and other such forms of expressions 
and topics as might occur to you from time to time, 
or in a close study of the subject. Be on your 
guard, at any rate, against acquiring a dread or 
a reluctance to engage in public prayer. This is a 
temptation which you must overcome ; otherwise it 
will grow upon you, and give you more and more 
trouble. 

"Your time at Falmouth is nearly out. And 
what then ? You speak of travelling : if I were ten 
years younger, I should like to go with you all over 
the East. I have my doubts how you would enjoy 
travelling, unless in good, intelligent company. But 
we will talk over the subject when you come home. 
All well. Peace be with you ! 

" Your affectionate father, 

"J. Hawes." 

"June 27, 1857. 

" I thank you for your letter. A happy journey 
you have had thus far ; and may prosperity attend 
you the rest of the way ! 'Lake Superior,' — I do 
not know about sailing over that. . . . 

" Eemember, you are not your own man ; are not 
at your own disposal : you belong to God, and are 
absolutely his property. Stop and work, then, just 
where he bids you. Have no will of your own. 



252 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

Never say C I wilV and 'IioonV when your Lord and 
Master speaks ; but answer always, ' Here I am ; as 
thou, and what thou wilt.' The sooner you adopt 
this as your governing principle, and lose yourself 
in it, the better. — News your mother will tell you. 
Peace be with you now and ever ! With this prayer 
in my heart, I hasten to my study, subscribing 
myself ever u Your affectionate father, 

"J. Hawes." 

"Nov. 10. 

u My dear Son, — This November weather, it is 
said, is just that which makes Englishmen hang 
themselves ; and tormented as I am with a tooth- 
ache, and a pitch-plaster on my breast, I am almost 
tempted to follow their example. Still I think I 
shall hang on a while longer. You need not inquire 
what the pitch-plaster means : only that it is some- 
times, you know, applied to strengthen a weak 
place, or close a slight wound. The latter is the 
application in my case; and I hope it may be ef- 
fectual. 

" It sometimes seems as if the Old Nick was let 
loose to work special mischief. So I have found it 
for a day or two. I have just received 6 The In- 
quirer,' in which I perceive they have reported the 

miserable slander which L B mentioned, 

and to which I replied, as you remember. So I have 
just written him again to publish my note if he sees 
fit. 

" Lose yourself in your work. Eeacl ' The Signet 
King,' with which you were so much pleased. It is 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 253 

a beautifully-instructive little book. Let us hear 
from you soon ; and when I am less in a hurry, and 
in some better trim, you shall hear from me in a 
more appropriate style. Peace be with you ! Work 
with your might. So prays 

u Your affectionate father." 

In January, 1858, Erskine was ordained as pastor 
of the church in Plymouth, Conn. The sermon was 
preached by the father of the modest but earnest 
young minister. 

While the mother was writino; one of her first 
epistles to the son in his new home, the father said 
to her, " Give him my love. Tell him not to feel 
as Jonah did when he got into the whale's belly, 
but as Paul did when he said, ' Woe is me if I 
preach not the gospel ! ' " 

Erskine soon found himself in the midst of a 
quiet but increasing religious interest. 

"Hartford, April 17, 1858. 

" I am very much rejoiced to learn that you are 
going into your work with so much earnestness and 
devotion ; and, more, that the Lord is owning your 
labors by the presence of his Spirit. Even the 
limited refreshing which you are now having is of 
great importance in its bearing on your future 
ministry. None can teach like God ; and what is 
learnt under the teachings of his Spirit will do more 
to make your preaching and pastoral care effectual 
than all learning, than all genius and eloquence. 
Do not be discouraged by little drawbacks, or by 



254 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

the failure of some to press in at the strait gate 
of whom you hoped better things. This will occur ; 
and you cannot prevent it. Your only concern 
should be to do what you can, in fidelity and love,, 
to guard against so unhappy an issue." 

" Hartford, May 13, 1858. 

" My dear Son, — I have just returned from 
New York, where I went to attend the meeting of 
the Tract Society; and a most unsatisfactory meet- 
ing it was. The Tract administration had it all their 
own way. The society, or a majority, indorsed the 
policy of the publishing committee, and virtually, 
if not in form, rescinded the unanimous action at 
the anniversary last year. The end is not yet. The 
meeting was at times sadly disorderly and violent ; 
and, after sitting some four hours, I came away 
grieved and disgusted. You will see the account in 
the papers ; and I need say no more, but add a 
maxim on which I hope you will always act, — to 
be right is to be strong, is to be safe, is to be happy. 

u I am glad you are turning your earnest atten- 
tion towards your young converts. The first few 
months of their Christian life usually give shape and 
form to their whole future character. 

" Strive then, in the first place, to get their feet 
fully on the rock : haul them far up on the shore ; 
and let no part of them dangle and float in the 
stream, if you can prevent it. Accustom them, as 
far as you can, from the first, to be active in the 
cause of Christ. Call upon them to pray and speak, 
if not in large meetings, yet in smaller ones, and 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 255 

among those of their own age and standing. Get 
them into the Sabbath school, either as teachers or 
as members of Bible-classes ; and let those who 
instruct be specially charged to watch over them, 
and counsel and guide them, — each one be a 
Methodist class-leader for the members of her own 
class. See them, yourself as often as you can, both 
collectively and individually ; and do all you can to 
encourage and help them on. Now is the time for 
you to impress yourself on their hearts, and bind 
them in attachment to you as their friend and 
pastor. I like your suggestion of meeting them for 
a sort of catechetical instruction : only you must not, 
at first, be too formal or systematical, but rather 
familiar and discursive, adapting yourself to their 
present circumstances and wants. Prepare them 
for entering the church by making them understand 
the nature of the transaction, its responsibilities, its 
privileges, and the qualifications requisite. These 
are hints : perhaps they may be of some use to you. 
u Your affectionate father, 

"J. Hawes." 

" Oct. 6, 1858. 

" In reply to yours of yesterday, just received, 
I would say, that to give directions how to prepare 
a right hand of fellowship is about as difficult as to 
give directions how to write a love-letter. It is, or 
should be, a simple effusion of feelings under the 
guidance of good sense and piety. It should never 
assume the form of dissertationizing, nor of high- 
flown, poetic language. Simplicity is the beauty 



256 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

of a right hand of fellowship, — a difficult part to 
perform well ; but, when performed well, very ex- 
pressive and beautiful. Not long, — five or seven 
minutes the full extent. Such was the length of 
the first one I ever delivered : it was at the ordina- 
tion of the first three missionaries who went out to 
the Sandwich Islands. It was highly praised at the 
time for its pertinency and simplicity. 

" By all means commit what you have to say to 
memory. It will appear much more natural and 
easy. Of course the whole performance should be 
simple, affectionate, sincere, and to the point : no 
talking about matters and things in general. But 
enough of this." 

Erskine wrote, making inquiries respecting the 
treatment of some church difficulties. In reply, the 
mother writes, " Your father says, c Never take a 
horse by the hind-foot when he is eating oats.' See 
the parties one at a time ; converse with them 
kindly, fairly, on the subject; and commit them to 
God." 

Five children have already been taken from these 
parents. The death-shadow is again hanging over 
them. It falls suddenly, like midnight shutting 
down upon noon. On Thursday morning, July 5, 
1860, that son, that only son, the son of promise 
and of prayer, was under the parental roof, and 
joined in the family devotions. He talked freely 
with his father about his plans of study, of preach- 
ing, and pastoral labor. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 257 

In the afternoon of the next day, he lay suffer- 
ing by a mortal wound from the kick of his horse. 
A messenger carried the sorrowful tidings to his 
home, though the imminent danger was then un- 
known. The mother hastened to his bed of agony. 
The following day, which was the Sabbath, the father 
was summoned from the sanctuary to that scene of 
distress. The long hours of suspense, as he travelled 
alone over those thirty miles, who can describe ? 
As he drove into the yard, his eye fell upon the 
open windows. The. sad truth burst upon him. The 
reins dropped from his hands. He sat motionless, 
stunned by the fearful blow. 

" And he mourned for his son many days." " c Me 
have ye bereaved of my children.' Louisa is not ; 
Thomas is not ; Mary is not • and now ye have taken 
Erskine away. ' All these things are against me.' 

" Now," said the good man, " I am bereft of my 
kith. I stand alone, without father, without mother, 
without son, without daughter. c The Lord gave, 
and the Lord hath taken away : blessed be the name 
of the Lord.' "/ 

The sudden close of a ministry so brief, — less 
than two years and a half, — yet so effective and 
beautiful, was one of those dark events which the 
father in his grief could find no place for, except in 
the mysteries of Infinite Wisdom and Love. When 
God wanted just such earnest workers in the field, 
why was this one removed, on whose preparation so 
much painstaking and prayer had been bestowed ? 
God could see why : that was enough for him. The 
work, he knew, would go on. 



258 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

Appropriate funeral- rites were performed at Plym- 
outh; in which the flock gathered around the 
youthful fallen shepherd in tearful respect and 
affection. Similar services were held at Hartford, in 
the midst of those who had known and loved him 
from his birth, and watched him to his burial. 

The following appropriate and .beautiful words 
were uttered at the grave by Dr. Samuel Spring of 
East Hartford : — 

" If we enter a grove where trees are standing 
of every variety of age and beauty and use, we 
are not surprised to see the aged and full-grown, 
that have long kept their place, and have blessed 
whole generations with their shade and fruit, cut 
down and removed, that place may be given to 
plants of promise whose fertility and beauty are yet 
to adorn the enclosure. It is the ordinance of a 
wise and good Providence. They have accomplished 
their destiny ; and there is nothing in the arrange- 
ment that excites surprise. But, when the axe is 
laid to the root of a young and beautiful tree of 
whose growth and maturity the most pleasing an- 
ticipations had been formed, we are perplexed, and 
we wonder what ruthless destroyer has been there. 
"We feel like grieving and complaining over the work 
of desolation. But our perplexity is at once relieved 
when we are told that the proprietor has ordered 
the removal ; and especially if he has transplanted 
the favorite to adorn his own personal residence, 
where its beauty and promise shall be to his lasting 
honor and gratification. 

" So, in the removal — untimely, as we are prone 






LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 259 

to estimate things — of the beloved youth whose 
remains we now consign to the grave, all our sur- 
prise is checked by the remembrance that the Lord 
of the vineyard has been here. This transfer has 
not been made without his direction. What though 
the tree under whose shadow a church and con- 
gregation would have sat with great delight, and 
whose fruit would have been sweet to their taste, 
shall bloom no more on earth? It is but trans- 
planted to the paradise of God, to flourish in im- 
mortal fragrance there." 

/An interesting memoir of Erskine was prepared 
by Mrs. Hawes, — a mother's monument to the 
memory of their last-born. In this volume is a 
discourse by the father, — " Consolation in Afflic- 
tion,"— i from which the following is an extract : — 
" One other source of consolation under the be- 
reavements of life is, that, when called to part 
with near and loved friends who die in the Lord, 
our separation from them is but for a brief time. 
They have gone just before us over the narrow 
stream, and are waiting on the shining shore to 
welcome our arrival. They are still alive, — alive 
with all their powers invigorated, with all "their 
affections purified, with all that was lovely and in- 
teresting and good in them here made perfect • and, 
clothed with immortal youth and vigor, they remem- 
ber us, pilgrims on earth, with a warmer love than 
ever, and are looking and longing, it may be, for 
the day when we, too, shall quit these scenes of 
mortality, and go to be ever with them in the 
presence of their and our Lord and Saviour. 



260 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

" Yes : we shall surely meet our dear Christian 
friends in another world, and shall know and love 
them, and forever enjoy their society. I have the 
deepest conviction £>f this truth. It is fully sus- 
tained in the Scriptures. It is most reasonable in 
itself, and accords well with all that we know of the 
soul, and of the scenes of immortality beyond the 
grave. And it is a truth which grows sweeter and 
more comforting to my heart every year I live. I 
lean upon it, and bring it home to my bosom with 
fresh gratitude and faith in this day of my sorrow. 

a My son, my dear and only son, thou hast left 
me a lonely mourner in the decline of my age ; but 
I would not recall thee to renew the battle of life, 
and pass through the agonies of another death- 
scene. 

" No : the last conflict is over ; the victory is won ; 
and thy Saviour, I trust, has taken thee to himself, 
to serve and enjoy him in a higher sphere of activi- 
ty, of usefulness and blessedness, than earth could 
afford. And there thou art waiting for thy parents, 
now mourning thy departure, and weeping over 
thy too-early grave, as it seems to us in our short- 
sightedness. But thou wilt not wait long : we are 
nearing the brink of the river over which thou hast 
passed ; and ere long the summons will come for us 
to launch away, and go to the spirit-land, where we 
confidently hope for thy welcome, and to have thee 
near to us forever. And tell us, hast thou found 
thy lovod brothers and sisters who died before thee ? 
Were they ready to greet thee, when, bidding us 
farewell, thou didst pass so suddenly within the veil ? 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 261 

Yes : ye are all together now ; and ere long, as I 
humbly hope, we shall all meet, a happy, united 
family, to minister to each other's joy and blessed- 
ness, in the presence of our Saviour, and to the glory 
of his rich grace for ever and ever. 

" I cannot but feel under the stroke that has fallen 
so heavily upon me. The heart, smitten, will bleed : 
the fountain of tears, unsealed, will flow. I know 
who has done it ; and, though I know not now why 
He has done it, I doubt not that He had wise and 
good reasons, and that what now seems so deeply 
mysterious and trying has upon it the character of 
a Father's love, and I shall yet see it. Still the 
thought is a bitter one, — I was a father, and I have 
lost all! Of six children, not one lives to call me 
by that endearing name. The last is gone, — laid by 
the side of four others ; while a fifth lies entombed 
on the shore of the Bosphorus, separated here, but 
united there, where I hope ere long to meet them." 



CHAPTER XIH. 



Proposals respecting a Colleague. — Settlement of an Assistant Pastor. — 
His Resignation, and the Resignation of Dr. Hawes. 



IN 186 0, Dr. Hawes made a communication to the 
committee of the church and society, proposing 
some change which would relieve him of a part of 
his labors, and bring to them the more full service 
which he felt they needed. He had contemplated 
such a proposition two years before, but, by the ad- 
vice of friends, postponed it. As no action was 
taken in the matter by the committee, in January, 
1861, he laid essentially the same communication 
before the church and society. He says, "I am 
brought to the conclusion, that it is my duty to re- 
sign my charge : and I do hereby resign it, first into 
the hands of my Saviour, from whom I received it; 
and then into the hands of those on whom it devolves 
to sustain the ministry and the interests of religion 
in this congregation." 

As still no action was taken, except some tenta- 
tive efforts in hearing young men, the January fol- 
lowing he repeated the same proposition : — 

" I have fully expressed the views I entertain in 
regard to the subject now submitted to your consid- 

262 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. . 263 

eration ; and I do not deem it necessary or proper to 
repeat them here. I will only say, that whatever 
action you may take in the premises, after due de- 
liberation, you may count on my cheerful concur- 
rence. Consult the best good of this church and 
society, and you will consult my highest happiness. 

" I can never be sufficiently thankful to my God 
and Saviour for having cast my lot among you as 
your minister ; nor have I any words to express the 
gratitude I feel for the many, many acts of kindness 
and generosity which you have shown to me and 
mine, and for the candor and patience with which 
you have received my very imperfect but well-meant 
services." 

In response to these communications, the parish 
adopted the following resolution : — 

" That it is the desire of this society, with the 
concurrence of Dr. Hawes, to proceed to call and 
settle a new minister, Dr. Hawes still retaining his 
pastoral relations to us, but without its responsibility; 
and we desire to take measures to bring about that 
event. And, further, that it is not our pleasure to 
settle a mere colleague." 

Dr. Hawes felt strong objections to the idea of a 
" new minister " that should not be a colleague ; and 
he made an elaborate communication to the society 
on the subject. To meet, so far as practicable, his 
views, the society, at an adjourned meeting, modi- 
fied the resolution by voting u to settle an associate 
pastor ; " and that the duties and responsibilities of 
which he was to be relieved " are to rest upon the 
junior pastor," .Dr. Hawes being expected to ren- 



264 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

der him such assistance as " his health and strength 
will permit and the circumstances require." 

Of this action, as he understood it, Dr. Hawes 
writes, " I am happy to say, it has my cordial appro- 
bation." 

Upon this mutual understanding, during the sum- 
mer of 1862, Mr. Wolcott Calkins was invited to 
preach as a candidate ; and, the following autumn, 
the church and society, with the concurrence of 
Dr. Hawes, called him to the office of associate pas- 
tor. With this arrangement all parties seemed 
equally pleased. In his peculiarly expressive man- 
ner, the old pastor said of the young candidate, " I 
have taken him to pieces, and put him together, and 
find all is right." 

But there was a little seed of trouble in this good 
ground, not the planting of any of the parties, but 
of Divine Providence. An old minister and a young 
one were brought into relations that sometimes sore- 
ly try the good nature and the grace of the best of 
men. One, in the natural course of things, was the 
waning, the other the waxing moon ; one the out- 
going, the other the incoming man. The junior 
pastor was fresh and attractive ; while the senior had 
begun to be looked upon as antiquated, and, by some, 
as almost obsolete. It was found, too, that there 
were points of difference between them in views 
and tastes, and modes of doing things. "What else 
could have been expected? Yet these two good 
men might have adjusted their differences, and 
worked harmoniously, but for a third interest, not 
less natural, nor less to have been expected. It was 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 265 

found to be the young pastor who drew the large 
congregations. What more natural than that the 
parish should think " the circumstances " required 
him to do about all the preaching, at least till the 
pews were filled with stated occupants ; and that the 
senior should hold himself, meanwhile, in restful and 
dignified reserve ? 

That Dr. Hawes should be sensitive to this im- 
plicit exclusion from his pulpit, that he should be 
grieved and irritated, is just as natural for him as any 
other act in the scene. It was, perhaps, certain 
strong points in his character that made him weak 
here, where patient endurance would have made him 
still stronger. 

"I do not like," he said, "to be laid upon the 
shelf before my time ; and I wont be. I love to 
preach ; and I will preach somewhere, as long as God 
puts it into the heart of any of his people to hear 
me." 

It was hard for him, who had guided the gospel 
chariot almost twoscore and ten years with signal 
success i who had had so many attractive and urgent 
inducements to leave his post, but had resisted them 
all ; and who, with his skill, had acquired a love of 
driving, — it was hard for*him at once and entirely to 
resign the reins, and to be, as he felt, crowded from 
his seat. The fall was too sudden, and the jar too 
great, for his equanimity. He thought it would be 
better for the pastor and his associate, for a while at 
least, to drive together, and the younger and inex- 
perienced to learn of the elder and experienced. 

But, when this did not seem best to the church, 



266 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

he did not at once see that it would be wiser cheer- 
fully to yield the reins ; take his seat inside, and be 
driven the short remainder of his journey, counsel- 
ling and comforting his fellow-travellers as there were 
need and opportunity. 

There is not always, however, the kindly consid- 
eration of the feelings and infirmities of an aged re- 
tiring minister, which charity, and sometimes equity, 
require. Many things are said in excitement and 
haste that sober second-thought does not approve, 
and which, when the long-tried and devoted pastor 
has been called to go up higher, would gladly be re- 
called. In most cases of trouble between a minister 
and his people, the talkers are as a hundred to one ; 
and the liability to error and obstinacy with the 
many cannot be regarded as very much less than 
with the one, though the chance for wisdom in their 
united action may be somewhat greater. 

Dr. Emmons resigned the pastoral office in his 
eighty-third year, — too late for some, too early for 
others. To one who expressed a doubt whether he 
did not withdraw too soon, he replied, " I meant 
to retire while I had sense enough to do it." Dr. 
Hawes was not as old by several years ; but his par- 
ish was a good deal younger than that of Dr. Em- 
mons. Thrifty churches, in a sense, never grow old ; 
while pastors always do. There is a youthful ele- 
ment in such churches, which needs a corresponding 
element in the pastor. The ministers that retain 
longest their freshness of feeling, their zeal in study, 
and their unction as preachers, usually retain longest 
their hold on the people. Few ministers equal Dr. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 267 

Hawes in these excellences. The churches, also, 
that are the least enamoured with the sensational and 
flashy in preaching, and that prefer ripe fruit to 
green, will generally have the least trouble with the 
right kind of old ministers. It costs a good deal of 
painstaking and prayer to get well into the ministry: 
it costs, sometimes, more of humility and resignation 
to get gracefully out of it. 

So much did the enterprising young pastor feel 
troubled by this state of things, that he resigned his 
office, and entered another field of labor. This 
resignation was followed by a surrender, on the part 
of Dr. Hawes, of all the duties, responsibilities, and 
rights of the pastoral office ; leaving to him simply 
the nominal relation, which could be dissolved only 
by a council. This relation, for several reasons, Dr. 
Hawes wished might remain. He had held it for 
almost half a century. It had never been dissolved 
by the church in respect to any of its ministers. 
He felt, that, under these circumstances, he should 
be as far from being a hinderance to Mr. Calkins or 
any other minister, in this relation, as he could be 
out of it. 

A few words from a communication made by Dr. 
Hawes to the church and society, dated April 20, 
1864, contain an expression of his feelings in regard 
to these trying events, and show the struggle they 
cost him, his ready admission of his wrong, and his 
desire to be right in the future. 

"I have been straitened; I have been tried; I 
have not been able to act myself. You have seen 



268 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

it ; others have seen it. I have lamented it, and 
sorrowed over it, but have not been able to over- 
come it. So far as any fault, in this particular, has 
been committed on my part, I shall strive to correct 
it in the future, and go on to finish my course, now 
nearly ended, in a manner pleasing to God, and 
best suited to prepare me for my own departure. 
Nothing, I trust, will ever occur to detach my affec- 
tions from the people of my loved charge, or pre- 
vent my using what of strength remains to me to 
promote their true interests." 

The relation between the church and Mr. Calkins 
was dissolved in July, 1864 ; and, in December fol- 
lowing, the Eev. J. R. Gould was installed as pastor. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Memoranda of Last Labors. — Last Sermons. — Death. — Mrs. Hawes : 

her Death. 



THE brief memoranda of passing events resumed 
by Dr. Hawes at this period were continued 
to the close of his labors and his life. June 1, 1864, 
he writes, " It is not well to omit a notice of what 
I do from day to day : I begin- anew to attend to this 
duty. 

u 13th. — Unwell. Ministers' meeting at my study. 
I do wish it could be more spiritual. 

" Aug. 15. — Things still unsettled and unpleasant 
in the First Church. Growing better, I trust. 

" 21st. — Preached at the South Church. A good 
time. Visited last week a number of families : on 
the whole, happy in doing so. Some seem differ- 
ent from what they formerly did \ but it is my pur- 
pose to know no man after the flesh, but to treat 
all as if nothing had happened to mar friendship or 
interrupt intercourse. May God guide and help me 
to be and do just what is right and pleasing in 
his sight ! then I shall be safe and happy. 

"Feb. 9. — At home. Unwell, but attended church 
Heard Eev. Mr. Gould, — a good preacher; a seri- 



270 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

ous, earnest man, I should judge. I baptized, by 
request of the parents, four children : was happy in 
doing so. 

" Nov. 24. — Thanksgiving. Preached at Yernon. 
A very pleasant occasion. Go there to-morrow 
again. So I am constantly employed, as I wish 
to be; and I am frequently comforted by friends 
where I preach, who sometimes say, c We think you 
are doing more good in going round to visit the 
churches than if you had been retained in your 
place in Hartford/ So let it be, and I am content. 

" 28th. —Attended to-day the funeral of Prof. Sil- 
liman at New Haven. President Woolsey delivered 
an address on the occasion, — an excellent picture 
of his noble character, and a fine tribute to his great 
excellence as a man, a scholar, a Christian, an officer 
in the college. All the services were appropriate 
and good. So c friend after friend departs.' Heav- 
en grows richer, and earth poorer, as those I have 
known and loved here ascend to the home prepared 
for them above. 

"Dec. 7. —Last Sabbath at Vernon. Good day. 
Congregation large, serious. Spent the night with 
my dear friend and brother, Eev. L. Hyde, who 
brought me home next morning. 

" Monday, 11th. — Spent Sabbath at Bristol. 
Preached for Eev. Mr. Griggs. I find my strength 
rather failing me under two sermons a day. My 
time of action, I am increasingly sensible, is nearly 
over. God prepare me for the time when I shall be 
laid aside, if life is prolonged ; above all, prepare me 
to die in his own time ! 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 271 

" 15th. — -Yesterday Rev. Mr. Gould was installed 
pastor of the church I served so long, and love 
so earnestly still. Examination entirely satis- 
factory : intelligent ; modest ; decided on all the 
great doctrines which I have believed and preached 
during all my ministry. I think well of Mr. 
Gould, and hope good may come from his minis- 
try. My main fear respects his health. If this 
fails, or if present intimations are carried out, great 
changes will be effected in the services of the Sab- 
bath in this old church ; and this will lead to changes 
in our other churches. There will be but one 
sermon on the Sabbath, with Sabbath school and 
prayer-meeting. The change, I know, must be 
deeply injurious in the final result. 

" 21st. — To-day attended the funeral of Hon. Seth 
Terry, at the South Church. Died after a brief and 
not painful sickness, aged eighty-five. Dr. Spring 
delivered an address. I made a few remarks, and 
offered the prayer. A decidedly Christian man. A 
faithful friend to me all the time I have been in 
Hartford. 

"Jan. JL5, 1865. — Sabbath at Vernon. Very cold. 
Audience not large ; but, on the whole, a good day. 
Last Friday evening, at the annual meeting of the 
society, the twelve hundred dollars, my original sala- 
ry, was voted me : only one voice, I am told, raised 
against it. I mean, by the use I make of what they 
have voted me, to show them that I have no inten- 
tion to grow rich at their cost. 

" Oct. 1. — Sabbath at home. Visited Sabbath 
school. Opened with prayer and address ; preached 



272 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

at South Church in the morning ; assisted Mr. Gould 
in the sacrament at the First Church ; visited the 
African Sabbath School and spoke in the afternoon ; 
attended the meeting in the hall, State Street, Sab- 
bath evening ; present at the young men's prayer- 
meeting in church-room ; said a few words ; heard 
Eev. Mr. Spaulding preach in the evening at South 
Church. Too much for one day. 

" 17th. — Sabbath at New Haven. Preached in 
college chapel in the morning. Spent the week 
preceding, and the Monday and Tuesday following, 
in attending the examination." 

" New Haven, Dec. 15, 1865. 

" My dear Wife, — It may perhaps add some in- 
terest to this note to tell you that I am writing it in 
Brother Fitch's study. I find them both well ; and 
both send much love. 

" If you have any occasion to write me, you can 
direct to New-Haven House. Do not write me any 
bad news ; for I am in no state to bear it, — not 
quite well. Yet do not report me as sick ; for I am 
not : I am only a little low-spirited. God help me, 
and help us both quietly to the end of our journey ! 
Our trust must be more and more in him, and less 
in man and in all things earthly. Peace be with 
you ! I suppose you feel lonely when I am absent ; 
and so do I : but we must make the best of it. Re- 
member me to Ann ; and believe me ever yours in 
the best of bonds, "J. Hawes." 

u Jan. 14, 1866. — Sabbath at Plymouth. Scenes 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 273 

of the past rose sadly to my mind, yet not unmin- 
gled with gratitude and praise. He has done his 
work on earth, and gone to his home and his re- 
ward. 

" Aug. 5. — Spent the Sabbath at Coventry with 
my old and good friend, Dr. Calhoun. An interest- 
ing visit : both of us near the close. I found him 
infirm^ unable to articulate so as to be understood 
without great difficulty, yet perfectly cheerful, and 
full of good hope. 

" March 10, 1867. — At home in my house all 
day. Unwell with a severe cold. It is hard to be 
shut up, and do nothing. Lord ! prepare me for 
the time, not distant if life is continued, when I 
must be laid aside as worthless. Death is prefer- 
able. Thy will be done ! 

" April 7. — At Gilead. A good Sabbath. Spent 
the week preceding at New Haven in the college- 
examinations. 

« 14th. — Gilead. A good Sabbath. 

" 21st. — Gilead. Unwell with a cold. 

« 28th. — Ditto. 

" May 5. — Gilead. Sacramental. A good Sab- 
bath. 

" 12th. — Gilead. 

" 19th. — Wallingford, with Eev. Mr. Gilbert. A 
good day. 

" 26th. — Gilead. Unwell with a cold. Eainy 
day." 

On the following Sabbath, June 2, Dr. Hawes was 
again at Gilead, though still suffering from his cold. 



274 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

His morning sermon was on the fourth verse of the 
thirty -ninth Psalm ; the subject, " Eternity contem- 
plated." In his introduction he says, " Oh eternity, 
eternity ! Who can paraphrase the words 6 for ever 
and ever ' ? There is a depth of meaning in them 
which our limited powers cannot fathom. The finite 
cannot comprehend the infinite. As we stretch our 
minds to take in the boundless prospect, we sink 
back in conscious weakness, and feel that it is but 
a glimpse we can get of the illimitable scene which 
lies before us, and which we designate by the term 
< eternity.' " 

The ruling thoughts in this discourse, which is 
one of remarkable simplicity and effectiveness, are 
the vastness of eternity and its nearness, the end 
of our probation, and the solemn scenes through 
which we pass in reaching it. It brings us to the 
judgment through one of the two ways, and to one 
of the two abodes, that await us. 

" I close with propounding a single question ; and 
I pray God to dispose you each one to answer it as 
you will wish you had on the great clay of account. 
Is it not better to remember these things on earth 
than in hell ? before your Saviour, than before your 
Judge ? in the day of grace, than in the day of ret- 
ribution ? " 

The afternoon sermon was from Matt. xxv. 32, — 
the great separation as a revealed fact, its nature 
and its consequences. 

The following are the concluding words : " Im- 
penitent children of pious parents, impenitent par- 
ents of pious children, impenitent husbands of 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 275 

pious wives, impenitent wives of pious husbands, 
how can you bear the thought of an eternal sep- 
aration ? How can you think of their walking on 
the banks of the river of life, happy, redeemed ones, 
while you wander, wretched outcasts, on the plains 
of despair ? How can you bear to think that all 
these tender ties are to be torn asunder, and that 
you are to be banished from them for ever and ever ? 
Oh, be wise, and in this your clay attend to the things 
that belong to your eternal peace, lest ere long they 
be hid forever from your eyes ! " 

These are fitting last words of such a preacher, — 
a beautiful close of an affectionate, earnest minis- 
try of almost fifty years. Augustine wished, that, 
when Christ came, he might be found either preach- 
ing or praying. Dr. Hawes was found doing both. 

He went from these services in the church to the 
house of Mr. Andrew Prentice, with the hope of at- 
tending the prayer-meeting in the evening ; but he 
was too unwell, and sent his regrets. 

A little past eleven o'clock, he became seriously 
ill ; and at half-past eleven, Wednesday morning, 
May 5, 1867, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, 
he finished the good fight, laid off his armor, and 
went up to take his crown. * 

During these last hours, his pains were at inter- 
vals exceedingly acute." He called them "stabbing 
pains ; " yet never a murmuring word escaped him. 
When Dr. Curtis arrived from Hartford, and told 
him that it was doubtful if he got any better, — " Do 
you think so ? " he asked with a little surprise. 
"You may live but a few hours." — "Is it pos- 
sible ? " 



276 .LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

There was not the slightest fear evinced , but only 
the characteristic tenacity of will to hold strongly 
to life as long as it lasted. When about siomms: 
a codicil to his will, attempting to raise himself, 
the doctor said, " You had better do it lying clown." 
— " No" was his prompt and decisive answer. 
And, when he could hardly hold the pen in his 
trembling hand, the doctor asked, " Shall I steady 
your hand ? " — " No : haven't I a will ? " 

In these last hours, his thoughts were much and 
most tenderly on his former charge. " I leave," he 
said, " an affectionate farewell to my beloved people 
whom I have so long served. I have endeavored 
faithfully to perform my duty as a pastor, with much 
imperfection, jet, I trust, with a humble desire to 
do them good. I hope to welcome them in heaven 
through that Saviour by whom I have been enabled 
to minister unto them in the gospel." 

A friend by the bedside said, " You' are almost 
home." — "Iain thankful that the great work of 
preparation is not now to be performed. I trust it 
it is all clone. The Lord be praised ! " At another 
time he said, " I would not give up my hope for 
millions of worlds. If I love any thing in the 
universe, it is the character of God. Where God is, 
there is heaven. Failing in with his government, 
we are safe : nothing can harm us." 

Writes a very clear friend, — a sister in the church, 
who had been intimate in his family, — " I saw him 
for an hour or more on the day preceding his death. 
His face was radiant with the peace which God only 
gives. He said to me, ' You need not tell my 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 277 

friends there is no hope of my recovery, as I may 
be spared to labor still longer among them. 
But \ — and a radiant smile lighted up his face — 
6 one thing is certain : whether I live or die, my af- 
fections and prayers are with that beloved church.' 
We exchanged farewells ; and I was turning away, 
when he called me back to kiss him. As I left, he 
said, c Peace be with you ! ' It was his parting bene- 
diction, — the last words I was ever to hear from 
those dear lips ; and, as I turned weeping away, I 
could but exclaim, ' My father, my father ! — the 
chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof! ' " 
7 Dr. Hawes had hoped that he might not have a 
long sickness ; and his hope was realized. He 
wished " that the doors might be thrown open wide, 
and that he might go directly home ; " and his wish 
was granted. 

Funeral-services were performed in the Centre 
Church on 'Saturday, the 8th of May, with every 
demonstration of respect and affection. President 
Woolsey preached the sermon, — a discriminating 
tribute to the excellence of the departed as a min- 
ister and a man. The mortal remains of this, the 
tenth pastor of that ancient church, were then borne 
by loving hands, and tenderly laid in their final rest- 
ing-place in the old burial-ground,] beside those of 
Dr. Strong, his immediate predecessor in office. 

The faithful wife came from Gilead to her desolate 
home, bearing the heavy burden of her bereave- 
ment ; but she was not left to bear it long. In one 
short week from the time when the door was opened 
to admit her husband to the heavenly home, it was 



278 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

again thrown open to her. As they had travelled 
together here in Christian conjugal love, so, almost 
hand in hand, were they permitted to enter the 
celestial city. 

Mrs. Hawes was a woman of peculiar fitness for 
her place. Quiet and self-possessed, she was yet full 
of womanly sensibility ; yielding from her affection- 
ate nature, but, from principle and habit, firm and 
abiding in her convictions of truth and duty. She 
thoroughly identified herself with her husband in his 
work from a hearty love of it ; and to what affected 
him adversely she was often more keenly alive than 
he. Griefs under which he sometimes broke clown 
she would both bear, and help to sustain him in 
them. 

Full of contentment with her lot, she never 
prompted her husband to seek any thing greater. 
Sometimes laying her hand gently on him when he 
was solicited to go up higher, she would quietly 
ask, " Had we not better remain where we are ? ' : 
Her heart was as large as the whole parish, and al- 
ways full, yet always with room in it for any who 
needed a sheltering home there. 

She was intelligent and discriminating in her 
judgments, domestic from early habit, and frugal 
from principle. She was simple in her tastes, and 
sincere and steadfast in her friendships. Amiable 
in her disposition, unaffected and pleasing in her 
manners, equally to the oldest and the youngest, 
she was a hater of affectation and parade, of all 
shows and shams. Quick to feel an injury, she was 
not slow to forgive and forget it. For many years 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 279 

she was a most faithful and successful Bible-class 
teacher, and withal a good deal of a theologian. 
Loving the old doctrines, and the old style of preach- 
ing them, she could not find the strong meat of the 
Word in flashes of wit, or mere figures of rhetoric. 

She was a model mother ; and the two of her chil- 
dren who lived to appreciate her excellence called 
her blessed. " She opened her mouth with wisdom, 
and in her tongue was the law of kindness. Give 
her of the fruit of her hands ; and let her own 
works praise her in the gates." 



CHAPTER XV. 



Extracts from Funeral Discourses. 



THREE discourses were delivered in Hartford on 
the death of Dr. Hawes. One was at the fu- 
neral, on Saturday, June 8, by President Woolsey, 
from Dan. xii. 3 : " And they that be wise shall 
shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they 
that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for 
ever and ever." 

Another was by Rev. George H. Gould, the suc- 
cessor of Dr. Hawes, the following Sabbath morning, 
in the Centre Church, from Heb. xi. 4: "Being 
dead, he yet speaketh." 

The third was by Rev. Edwin P. Parker, on the 
same Sabbath evening, in the South Church, from 
Matt. xxv. 23 : " Well done, good and faithful ser- 
vant!" 

Each of these sermons is strongly marked by 
the characteristics of the writer ; yet they are sin- 
gularly harmonious in the general estimate of the 
character and work of him whose life they portray, 
and whose loss they deplore. 

Each presents a portrait of him, unlike in color- 
ing, and from different points of view, 'but all true 

280 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 281 

to the original; and beautiful, — variety in harmony, 
diversity in agreement, and from master-artists. 

But these are more than mere personal utterances. 
They have a representative value, and may be taken 
as the accredited expression of the public sentiment 
and sympathy, — a response to the call of the occa- 
sion from the university and the churches of Con- 
necticut, which were all sharers in the bereavement. 

For these reasons, the following extracts claim 
a place here. It would be hardly just to the reader 
not to present them: indeed, without them, the 
work would not be complete. 

FROM PRESIDENT WOOLSEY's DISCOURSE. 

" My friends, we are met here to pay the last 
respects to one who was a faithful minister of Christ, 
and who i turned many to righteousness.' We may 
have had occasion to honor him on personal accounts ; 
but the great reason why this tribute is clue, and is 
freely rendered, is, that he has been an eminently 
successful instrument raised up and stationed by the 
Head of the Church for its good. 

" The time when Mr. Hawes began his work was, 
in some respects, a very favorable one for a minister 
of the gospel. The old mode of preaching, the old 
and steady faith in the doctrines taught to him and 
taught by him, the old way of exhibiting those doc- 
trines, the old, simple habits in the cities of Con- 
necticut, the old respect for the clergy, the old 
preponderance of theological knowledge over secular, 
had not yet begun to suffer a change. 

" He was in some respects, even at the commence- 



282 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

ment of his ministry, a man of the past, and in 
himself a man disinclined to new forms either of 
thought or action. He had been brought up in a 
highly primitive part of New England, amid the 
influences that came from Hopkins or from Emmons. 
Soon after he began his work, a great revival oc- 
curred, — the greatest it was ever given him to wit- 
ness, — which tended, probably, to unite him to his 
people by a new tie. These causes, perhaps, besides 
his personal worth, and the adaptation of his preach- 
ing to the i perfecting of the saints, to the edifying 
of the body of Christ,' will explain why he found it 
comparatively easy, in a few years, to occupy a 
commanding place in Connecticut and throughout 
New England. 

"He was extensively beloved, confided in, and hon- 
ored. Few persons were listened to more readily 
than he in those places where he preached by way 
of exchange with the resident minister. In the 
strifes of theological opinion within the State, he 
never lost the confidence of the party from which 
he was supposed to differ. Wherever he went out 
of New England, he was welcomed as a true-hearted 
minister of Christ, without show or pretence, but, in 
the best sense, a preacher of the gospel of his Mas- 
ter. Public societies honored themselves by placing 
his name on the list of their officers. Twenty-one 
years ago, the corporation of Yale College elected 
him one of their fellows, and afterwards one of 
the members of their most important committee. 
Thus confidence, respect, and reverence followed 
him steadily from the time when, a man mature in 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 283 

years, although a novice in pastoral experience, he 
became the minister of this church. 

" It was fitting that he should preach to the last ; 
for this was his life-work : he was called out of his 
sins, that he might become a preacher of righteous- 
ness. The impressions with which he was prepared 
for the kingdom of heaven were, if we may venture 
to judge, made for this end. This was eminently 
his sphere ; and when we think of Dr. Hawes in any 
other kind of life, or in any other department of 
religious activity, we feel that he would have been 
out of his place, and have fallen below his just 
level. All his influence seemed to centre just here ; 
and if, when God had sent him the summons, 6 Go 
preach my gospel,' he had not obeyed, c woe would 
have been unto' him above most others. 

" What, then, were his qualifications for this work ? 
Not imagination and the power of vivid represen- 
tation, nor a poetic coloring of thought : his mind 
was of a plain, homespun character. Not elegance 
of style, and grace of manner : few preachers as suc- 
cessful as he have had so little of this sort of attrac- 
tiveness. Not logical precision, and cogency of rea- 
soning ; for, although not deficient, he did not excel in 
these respects. Nor yet originality either of thinking 
or of expression ; for this was in no degree prominent. 
But his strength lay in one or two qualities of mind, 
and in those traits, whether moral or religious, 
which we mentioned early in this discourse as quali- 
fying a servant of God to i turn many to righteous- 
ness.' 

'" First, he appeared to be intensely practical. 



284 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

* 
Something was to be done ; and his mind, with con- 
siderable ardor, pressed towards the main point, 
leaving accessories to take care of themselves. He 
did not stop to satisfy taste in the style or arrange- 
ment of a sermon : he kept no artistic end before 
him. But men must be convinced, must be saved, 
must be sanctified. This seemed to fill his soul 
rather than how to make a good sermon. He dwelt 
on the end rather than on the means ; and the end 
suggested the means. This practical power in the 
service of Christ and his gospel was a source of great 
strength. 

" Allied to this quality was his earnestness ; to make 
up which were united a strong energy of purpose 
and an emotional nature. He showed to all that he 
was a man of feeling. This displayed itself in his 
changing countenance, in the fervency of his appeals, 
and even in the rapidity of his utterance. Every 
one felt that his heart was in his work • that he was 
not thinking of himself ; that he was managing the 
cause committed to him with his best power. 

u His sympathies, too, with men, and with men's 
souls, were strong, as was shown by the response he 
met with from his hearers, and from the general 
kindliness that multitudes who knew him felt towards 
him. There was a tender faithfulness in his plain, 
unpolished manner, a confidence inspired in him as a 
guide who took a warm interest in souls, that was 
better than all eloquence and all originality. 

" His apparent honesty, and simpleness of heart, also 
awoke confidence ; and I do not know but that his 
plainness of style and manner increased the impres- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 285 

sion. He was never made to be a cunning man ; he 
had too much openness of speech for this : nor could 
he discover the guile of others. His character stood 
before his hearers as that of one who believed what 
he said ; who took straightforward ways of gaining 
his point ; and who, in preaching, spoke out of a 
sincere heart. 

" He was, moreover, a man of strong and fixed con- 
victions; and truth, from his conversion onward', had 
set its mark upon him. I suppose that speculative 
doubts could never have troubled him; that the 
strong, bold realities which his experience helped 
him to discover made him proof against them, and 
almost demonstrated to him the necessity of the 
gospel : but what a gift and a power is this for the 
preacher of righteousness ! 

"And then, lastly, he was in sympathy with Christ 
and with God. His was no ministry of theological 
science, nor of philanthropy, nor yet only of com- 
passion for sinners : but he drank from the fountain ; 
he communed with the Infinite One ; he united his 
efforts as a servant with the plans of God ; he iden- 
tified himself and his work with the divine glory. 
And so he was qualified to bring souls to God, and 
to bring God's grace to souls. 

"The religious traits which we ascribe to Dr. 
Hawes have been so clearly implied in our sketch of 
his qualifications for his work, that we need not dwell 
on them by themselves. He may have had his 
doubts and his despondencies ; but he seemed to be 
a hopeful and a joyful believer. He carried his re- 
ligion with him everywhere. No one taxed him 



286 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

with levity or inconsistency or instability. As he 
was in the pulpit, so he showed himself in daily life 
and in all intercourse. And this impression, that he 
was a man of God, greatly aided all his ministerial 
labors. He had no need to overcome unfavorable 
prejudices arising from a life unlike his teachings, 
but was received by all with the conviction that he 
had the character which he wished to cultivate in 
others. His prayers in public — devout, sincere, 
humble, affectionate — gave evidence to all that he 
lived near God in private. 

" That he had marked faults arising out of certain 
strong traits of character, particularly that he loved 
power, who can deny ? But have I any need again 
to remind men who have looked abroad over the 
world that faultless men are not always the best 
men, the truest Christians, the most useful men ; nay, 
that quite as often marked blemishes, which the 
world notices and carps at, are consistent with the 
highest earthly piety, with the greatest useful- 
ness ? 

" There is one, standing solitary and bereft, to 
whom, in this hour of her grief, I would speak a word 
of consolation. Her cup has truly been mixed with 
sorrow. Those four graves of children, given but 
to be snatched away, taught her long ago what 
death means. Then came the loss of the gifted 
daughter, just consecrated to the missionary work, 
and closing her short life in a strange land. Then, 
oh ! how bitter was the sudden death of that son, 
just initiated into the ministry, the joy and hope 
of the parents ! And now again God has cut off her 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 287 

staff and her stay, leaving her no substitute in the 
affection and care of children. But still all is not 
dark. The everlasting Father has treasured up 
these departed ones that the family may be again 
united. Oh ! these separations, these separations, 
are indeed laden with sorrow ; but they are neces- 
sary for a higher, a more lasting union, to which 
faith and hope can look forward with patience, and 
so fill the soul with peace. May this peace be her 
portion from the God of peace, from the covenant 
Father ! " 

FEOM EEV. ME. GOULD'S DISCOUESE. 

" The most that I would dare undertake, with 
your indulgence, this morning, would be to attempt, 
in the hush of your grief, to give voice to some 
of the memories which cluster around this pulpit, 
and throng upon your minds, of the words and 
teachings of him now taken from you. 

. " Of an old and faithful servant of God an inspired 
pen has recorded, ' He, being dead, yet speaketh.' 
Yes, Death may lay his icy hand upon the lips of 
God's faithful messenger, and still them forever. 
The familiar form shall vanish from sight ; the kin- 
dling eye, the speaking frame, the transfigured 
countenance, the incarnated eloquence, will be seen 
no more. The tones of that voice, so expressive, so 
honored, so familiar, so intertwined with a thousand 
occasions and recollections of the past, will never 
more be heard on earth. Death has palsied that 
tongue 5 Death, at length, has conquered that 
indomitable will, that iron frame ; Death has 



288 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

quenched, at last, that burning, well-nigh apostolic 
zeal. We are forced to acknowledge to-day, that, 
to all outward seeming, Death stalks grim victor 
over the desolated field. The grave covers all from 
sight. The places that have known so long this 
eminent father in Christ shall know him no more 
forever. But has Death indeed conquered ? Has 
Death indeed been able to silence that incorruptible 
witness for the truth of Heaven ? Is that ministry 
of fifty toilsome, faithful years all over to-day ? 

" Thanks be to God, Death wields no such dark 
sovereignty as that oyer any faithful servant of 
Jesus Christ. { He, being dead, yet speaketh : ' 
how strikingly are these inspired words emphasized 
and verified to-day by all your pondering and 
mourning hearts ! Ah, yes ! another voice than mine 
is in this pulpit to-day ; another form than mine is 
standing before you to-day. In memory's sacred 
chambers, other tones than mine are waking echoes 
to-day. Some of you, glancing backward in thought 
from this hour over many years, find those years all 
clustering with reminiscences which centre in a 
speaker no longer numbered with the living. c He, 
being dead, yet speaketh/ and will continue to 
speak through his life-work and life-influence until 
the latest generations of time. What sermons are 
echoing in this house to-day, what appeals, what 
admonitions, what visions of judgment, what ex- 
postulations with the impenitent, what intercessory 
prayer before Heaven for the Christless, what pic- 
tured joys for the faithful ones of God ! 

" At how many sick-beds is that voice heard to-day ! 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 289 

In how many homes shadowed by the wing of the an- 
gel of affliction, at how many funerals, by the side 
of open coffins, do we hear him still, in his own sol- 
emn and gifted manner, in which he will have no 
successor, uttering words of triumphant faith to bowed 
and bleeding hearts in the name of Him who is the 
Resurrection and the Life ! At how many graves 
have I stood by his venerated side while he has min- 
istered consolation to weeping friends in words that 
none of us could command as yesterday we looked 
down into his own open grave ! 

" Yes, we have carried him to his burial ; but his 
earthly ministry is not ended. Hundreds, and per- 
haps thousands, to-day, over this broad land, grate- 
fully acknowledge him spiritual father. Tens of 
thousands yet feel the influence of his personal min- 
istry in every fibre of their spiritual being. He has 
spoken, and continues to speak, on both sides of the 
Atlantic, by his published 6 Lectures to Young Men,' 
to an aggregate of probably half a million souls. His 
published sermons are preaching to-day in nearly a 
thousand missionary homes at the West. His name 
is still a fragrance and a tower of strength in many a 
foreign missionary field. His ministerial work and 
influence are recognized to-day in every part of New 
England. To an extent probably equalled by no 
other man, for the last forty years he has moulded 
the religious character of this State. Upon our own 
city he has left his personal impress to a remarka- 
ble degree, — upon all these pulpits and churches ; 
upon our civil and educational institutions ; upon 
the moral, secular, and social habits of this en- 



290 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

tire community. And can the accumulated vol- 
ume and momentum of such a life-work, covering 
nearly two generations, be suddenly checked and 
terminated by a shaft of death ? No, my friends : 
as well might you go out to yonder majestic river 
that courses past our city, and attempt to stay its 
volume of onward-sweeping waters that not another 
drop shall reach the open sea,, as to think that a 
human life so long and faithfully devoted to God's 
service among men can be interrupted in its glori- 
ous and ever-widening power, until, at last, all its 
sanctified currents (time being no more) shall min- 
gle with the broad ocean of eternity. ' And I heard 
a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed 
are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : 
Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
labors ; and their works do follow them.'' 

" And let us now, when we have carried him to 
his rest, and as we stand for a few moments to-day 
reverently and tearfully contemplating his finished 
ministry, so honored ef God, and so fruitful in spir- 
itual influences that shall never decay, — let us in- 
quire what were some of the elements of power, that, 
under the blessing of Heaven, entered into his per- 
sonal ministry, thus making it an eminent and 
enduring success. 

" And, first, it was a ministry based pre-eminently 
on the simple and faithful proclamation of God's 
revealed truth. If ever a man since the great 
apostle could truthfully say, Dr. Hawes had a right 
to say to his people, 6 1 have not shunned to declare 
unto you all the counsel of God.' In all his public 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 291 

ministrations froni this pulpit, he sought to come 
before his people, not with words of human wisdom, 
not with the disputations of the worldly-wise, or 
with the understanding of the worldly-prudent, but 
as one commissioned with a message from the court 
of heaven, sent fearlessly to declare God's .truth, 
whether men would hear or forbear. And in this 
unwavering confidence in the simple and naked 
power of God's Word, when sealed upon the heart 
and conscience by the Divine Spirit, to overcome 
the natural depravity and sinfulness of men, and 
redeem them forever unto God, are we to look, I 
think, for the first element of success which entered 
into his ministry. He did not dare to daub the 
rising walls of God's spiritual building with untem- 
pered mortar. He dared not mingle his own human 
theories with the written and authpritative message 
which God had bid him declare/' He cherished no 
faith in the power of mere science or learning or 
philosophy or rhetoric or eloquence to batter down 
the strongholds of the kingdom of darkness. Upon 
the simple, heartfelt, unadorned, and Christ-commis- 
sioned c preaching of the cross,' though Greek and 
Jew should call it ' foolishness,' he humbly relied for 
all his success as a minister of God. This church 
of Christ, placed under his single and uninterrupted 
pastorate for a period of nearly forty-five years, 
stands to-day a monument to his fidelity to the 
truth. 

" Another remarkable personal characteristic of 
our deceased father in Christ was the depth and 
intensity of his religious convictions, and the all- 



292 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

absorbing and magnetic earnestness which distin- 
guished him as a preacher, even to the close of life. 
On no man's lips, since Paul's day, were these words 
more truthful or pertinent : ' I believed, therefore 
have I spoken.' This intense personal conviction 
of the truth he spoke gave a wonderful weight and 
majesty to all his public utterances. His auditors 
straightway forgot the speaker in the transcendent 
importance of the message he brought them. No 
man ever heard Dr. Hawes speak or preach who 
doubted for one instant, that, to the depths of his 
own soul, he felt and believed what he said. John 
Calvin's seal-motto was a hand holding a heart on 
fire, with the legend beneath, c I give thee all : I 
keep back nothing.' That seal-motto not improp- 
erly might have descended to Joel Hawes. 

" Were I required, then, to single him out from the 
eminent preachers of his time by some one quality 
wherein he stood unrivalled in the pulpit by any 
contemporary, I should say sanctified earnestness. It 
burned and heaved, and glowed like a molten but 
half-hidden stream of fire, along all his sentences. 
His eloquence would have answered well to Milton's 
definition : 6 The serious and hearty love of truth ; 
a mind fully possessed with a fervent desire to know 
good things, and to infuse them into the minds 
of others.' It is this rare gift of lofty spiritual en- 
thusiasm which doubtless has given a traditional 
reputation to some of his pulpit efforts, especially in 
his earlier ministry, which no printed pages can 
now reproduce or perpetuate. The c sermon ' can 
be published ; but the trumpet-toned voice which 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 293 

once uttered it, and the ' heart of fire ' which once 
blazed and throbbed behind it, exist no longer. I 
have been repeatedly told by men now in middle 
life, that in their college-days, twenty-five or thirty 
years since, when from time to time they heard Dr. 
Hawes preach in yonder university chapel, impres- 
sions were made on their minds and hearts more 
powerful than were ever made by living preacher 
besides. 

" Once more : I may remark, Dr. Hawes laid the 
foundation of an enduring and constantly-widening 
ministerial influence by manifesting ever a quick 
and hearty sympathy with all the living questions 
and interests of his time. The charge could never 
be laid at the door of his ministry, that he neg- 
ligently or cowardly divorced Christian doctrine 
from Christian morality or public virtue. He never 
shrank from a faithful application of God's own truth 
to whatever sin, private or social, high or low, met 
and confronted him in the legitimate sphere of his 
responsibility as a minister of Christ. From first to 
last, he was a bold, outspoken, unflinching Christian 
reformer. From first to last, during his whole 
ministry, his name and influence were found, almost 
without an exception, on the right and progressive 
side of every great question of public morality and 
justice that has agitated our land, and at length has 
become victorious through enlightened public sen- 
timent. When others have faltered, he has stood 
firm. When others have been ready to bow a craven 
knee to wrong or wickedness, or oppression dominant 
and triumphant for the hour, he has stood erect, 



294 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

incorruptibly true to freedom, to humanity, to jus- 
tice, and to God's immutable righteousness. 

" To the last he has maintained a most active per- 
sonal interest in all that pertained to the welfare of 
our city. Gladly and promptly and laboriously has 
he identified himself with every movement which in 
any way has promised to advance its moral, social, 
political, or religious well-being. "We shall miss his 
voice and paternal words in our ministerial brother- 
hood ; ' for though we have ten thousand instructors 
in Christ, yet have we not many fathers.' This city, 
these Christian churches, in a thousand ways, will 
miss his valued counsels, his revered presence, his 
honored influence, his ceaseless activity in every 
good word and work. e In a full age, like as a shock 
of corn cometh in his season,' he has gone to his 
grave ; but his great life-work, identified and inter- 
twined with the progress of God's own victorious 
cause on earth, shall not wane or die." 

FROM EEV. ME. PAEKEE's DISCOUESE. 

" It was known with great sorrow in all our houses 
that Dr. Hawes had departed this life, and entered 
into rest. A good and kind and venerable and 
godly man has gone from our midst, whom every 
one respected and loved. He was so widely known 
and so highly esteemed, and has been so closely re- 
lated to the history of this city for the last forty 
years, that no apology seems necessary for discours- 
ing this evening upon his character and life-work. 

" My personal knowledge of Dr. Hawes elates back 
only about seven years. I must therefore speak of 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 29 5 

him as I knew him ; first of all thanking God that I 
was permitted to know him, and, for these years, 
to reap the benefits of his kindness, counsel, and 
sympathy. 

" The man first ; afterward the minister. Dr. Hawes 
was a man of singular industry, energy, and per- 
severance. He was an indefatigable and enthusiastic 
worker; He did not inherit, but won by hard and 
diligent labor, the proud position which he has 
occupied. At the outset he was a poor boy, and 
worked with his own hands and brains for the 
means of a good education. He toiled and grew. 
He not only got knowledge, but got a thorough 
self-discipline. And these same qualities were man- 
ifested throughout all his ministry. He studied ; 
he worked unremittingly. He did not achieve 
success by fortunate speculation, but, so to speak, 
dug it out of the iron hills. He did a prodigious 
amount of work from year to year; and, year by 
year, the amount of work to be done increased 
upon him. 

" For forty-four years he carried such weight as 
few men have or could have carried ; and in these 
later years, when he might have been at leisure, he 
was continually busy. He studied and wrote and 
preached, and did the whole work of a minister, 
with as much patience and application as any min- 
ister that I know of in the State. 

" Bear in. mind, too, that it was a matter of con- 
science and principle with him. All his time and 
talents belonged to God. It was wrong for him to 
be a man of leisure ; to be laid upon the shelf. The 



296 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

substance of his reply to those who thought him 
imprudent in his unremitting labor was the noble 
language of St. Paul : ' For whether we be beside 
ourselves, it is to God ; or whether we be sober, it 
is for your cause : for the love of Christ constraineth 
us.' It will be seen at once that these habits were 
very important elements of his success and great- 
ness. In respect of them, his life is an example to 
all Christian men, and especially to all Christian 
ministers. 

" Dr. Hawes was a man of singular uprightness 
and purity of character. Here lay his greatness 
and strength and power. Honesty, integrity, sim- 
plicity, sincerity, were qualities which shone con- 
spicuously in him ; so that his name has long been a 
synonyme of all such virtues. There was no double- 
mindedness in him : he was incapable of any deceit 
or dishonesty or double-dealing. He was as good 
as his word ; and that is rare goodness. I think we 
touch here his chief characteristic, the peculiar thing 
about him. 

" One of his most deservedly popular sermons 
was that entitled 6 Character Every Thing to the 
Young.' He threw himself into it. People found 
him and felt him in it; and therefore it had im- 
mense weight and influence. It depends a good 
deal upon who utters and argues such a proposition 
as that. Dr. Hawes was the man to do it. When 
he uttered and argued it, men were convinced. They 
felt him ; and the power of the beauty of holiness 
came down upon them from him through the words 
he spake. In his hands, your fortune, your honor, 



LIFE OF DR. II AWES. 297 

jour secret, your reputation, or whatsoever you in- 
trusted to him, was safe. 

" Simplicity, honesty, sincerity, integrity, — these 
first and fundamental principles supported and char- 
acterized his manhood, as all will testify ; and the 
sun is no more surely a source of light and heat for 
the worlds that circle about it than was such a char- 
acter a corrective and sanctifying power in the com- 
munity where it shone and radiated. His character 
it was that ever backed up and gave weight to all 
the good man's opinions, instructions, and counsels. 
The man was greater than his utterance. There 
was power in him which went forth unconsciously ; 
so that, even in his mere presence or name, there 
was power. Indeed, his life is a grander proof and 
illustration of the truth, that < character is every 
thing,' than even the convincing argument of his 
own excellent discourse. 

" Dr. Hawes was a man of eminent practical wis- 
dom, of most excellent common sense and judgment. 
He was not given to bubbling up, and boiling over 
and spilling himself, in moments of heat and excite- 
ment. There was a moderation about him, and a 
temperance, such as St. Paul enjoined. He con- 
trolled and contained himself in a remarkable degree. 
He came very swiftly, as if by intuitive judgments, 
to conclusions that were generally sensible and 
sound on all practical questions of duty, expediency, 
and policy. He doubtless sometimes erred ; not 
quite realizing that the i fashion of this world passeth 
away,' and that ' new wine must be put into new 
bottles.' But if time and experiments shall prove 



298 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

that some of the innovations which he earnestly but 
never censoriously deprecated — such, for instance, 
as the abolition of the second preaching-service on 
the Sabbath — are not improvements at all, but 
sources of weakness and clanger, it will not be the 
first time that young men have been forced to ac- 
knowledge the superior wisdom of old age ; nor shall 
I, for one, be greatly disappointed. 

" But, in the main, his judgment was singularly 
excellent. It was so because of his thorough sin- 
cerity and honesty of purpose, which forbade him 
to admit the force of personal prejudices, piques, 
or inclinations; because of his habit of moderate 
and calm reflection ; and because of a very decided 
judicial cast of mind. He would have made an in- 
different advocate, but a most excellent judge. He 
was a man of opinions rather than of ideas ; a man 
to grasp and sift and weigh and classify the facts in 
any given case, and to give a good opinion or ren- 
der a just decision thereupon, rather than a man of 
creative, poetic, imaginative mind. 

" As you all know, his opinions and advice were 
sought very early and extensively' and constantly. 
His study was the resort and refuge of ministers and 
church-committees, as well as of individuals in their 
troubles. A great many crooked things have been 
made straight, a great many rough places plain, and 
a great deal of most important work in the way 
of preserving the peace and prosperity of the 
churches of Connecticut has been performed, in that 
quaint old study, by that good old man, of which 
very little is known, or will be known until that day 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 299 

when every man's whole work shall appear. Let 
the Christian men and women of this city, and many 
who are not Christians, testify how often they have 
sought his counsel. Let the churches say by whose 
opinions they have been for the most part guided, 
neither unwillingly nor unwisely. Let the pastors 
of these churches, and of the churches in all this 
vicinity, tell from whom they have especially and 
profitably taken counsel in their trials and perplexi- 
ties. Let the societies and boards and colleges and 
schools confess how they have begged, and deferred 
to, his wisdom. 

" Who has been the oracle to be consulted on all 
these practical questions ? Dr. Hawes was our 
bishop. We called him sometimes (never, however, 
but to do honor to the legitimacy and wisdom and 
beneficence of his involuntary dominion over us) our 
pope ! Pope, patriarch, bishop, — titles playfully ap- 
plied, but significant of the fact, that by common con- 
sent, and by clear right also, he held the seat of honor, 
to preside over and moderate in all our practical de- 
liberations. Nor was this a tribute paid to his age, 
nor a concession made to any assumption or weak- 
ness on his part, but a simple acknowledgment of 
his right to such a presidency by virtue of these 
very peculiar and practical gifts, which I have said 
he possessed in a remarkable degree. 

" Dr. Hawes's religious life was a healthy, whole- 
some, fruitful one. There was very little, if any, 
morbidness about him : indeed, a most becoming 
seriousness crept over him, smoothing the lines of 
his face, giving a reverence and gravity to his 



300 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

whole manner, and subduing even the tones of 
his voice, whenever he discoursed or conversed 
upon the great themes of religion, or engaged in 
religious devotions. But all this was the outward 
manifestation of a deep, pure, beautiful reverence 
of his spirit for all things sacred. There was a 
majesty in God for him; nor have I ever known 
a man who bowed more humbly in spirit before that 
majesty, or who more truly feared the Lord. 

" No doubt, too, there was that in Dr. Hawes's 
carriage and demeanor, especially in former years, 
which checked undue familiarity, inspired the young 
with something like awe, and gave a stranger the 
impression of austerity and haughtiness. We should 
remember that the ministers of the last genera- 
tion were invested with a certain magisterial dig- 
nity and authority ; were looked up to with some- 
thing more than the thin reverence of this marvel- 
lous age of equalities ; and were both trained, and, 
in a sense, obliged to live, under a constant sense 
of the dignity of their sacred office, and the impor- 
tance of their high position. 

" But, after all, who that ever enjoyed Dr. Hawes's 
acquaintance did not feel that there was a sweet, 
pure, bracing, moral atmosphere about the man? 
His influence was never a depressing, but always an 
invigorating and encouraging one. He used the 
world as not abusing it. There was no frivolity, no 
levity, but there was a delightful mirthfulness and 
cheerfulness, about him ; not in the least melan- 
choly, rueful, moping, or lugubrious, but, on the 
other hand, sprightly, cheery, joyful, and almost 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 301 

sportive, in his way. There were few faces that had 
more pleasant light in them, few voices that had 
more that was comforting and encouraging in their 
tones. His Christian life was pitched in the major, 
not in the minor keys. He was a cheerful and 
happy Christian ; and the whole effect of his influ- 
ence upon others was to lift them out of their dark- 
ness and dulness and dejection into light and liberty 
and song. 

, " Dr. Hawes was eminently a man of geniality 
and kind-heartedness ; and this it was which made 
him so universally beloved as well as respected. 
His natural disposition was, in this respect, most 
happy. He was as thorough a gentleman as ever 
lived. He could be positive without being rude ; 
could criticise without being unkind or discourteous ; 
could denounce and rebuke without showing malice 
or contempt. I shall never forget some things I 
recently heard him say on that clause of the Lord's 
Prayer, < Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive 
those that trespass against us.' If he died having 
any unsettled differences with any man, I know that 
it was not his fault. That loving heart, that gentle, 
forgiving spirit, could not, did not, harbor or cherish 
any feelings of ill-will toward any man. There were 
warm, refreshing, and inexhaustible fountains of 
tenderness and gentleness in his soul. That rugged 
nature was all beautiful within with lowly thoughts, 
generous impulses, kind feelings, and sanctified 
affections. The solid, granitic substance of his char- 
acter was full of living springs of the simplest and 
sweetest emotion? 



302 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

" His external appearance was rough, perhaps. 
He certainly was not a polished man outwardly. He 
carried himself with something of the old-time dig- 
nity, magnifying his office, and demanding for it 
something of the profound respect which he himself 
felt. But to talk with him in his house ; to hear his 
great, broad, hearty laugh ; to listen to his happy 
reminiscences and anecdotes, — was to have all your 
notions of awkwardness, formality, austerity, swept 
entirely away. So far from being a difficult man to 
get along with, I never could see any foundation for 
the notion. I solemnly affirm, that, in my judg- 
ment, nothing whatever was necessary to the preser- 
vation of the happiest and most harmonious relations 
between him and his fellow-laborers, except to pay 
him that deference to his years and his standing 
which every such old man deserves to receive, and 
which every sensible and modest younger man ought 
willingly and cheerfully to render. 

" He was firm in his notions, convictions, and 
prejudices ; and who that amounts to something in 
the world is not ? Under the pressure of a sense of 
duty, he went asunder at one time, not in anger, but 
in grief, from another most eminent and beloved 
of our older ministers. But so did Paul and Bar- 
nabas contend and part. Nor did these Hartford 
apostles wait to harmonize their views, and join their 
hands again in heaven. For long years now have 
we seen them sitting together in heavenly places 
in Christ Jesus, walking and working together in 
love. 

" Even in later years, our venerable father found 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 303 

himself separated in opinion and action on several 
important and exciting public matters from some 
of the oldest and most influential members of his 
church, who were also his dearest friends. We saw 
him zealously leading in one direction, and them as 
zealously leading in the opposite direction ; but 
their mutual esteem, confidence, and friendship were 
uninterrupted, and they now sing together the 
song of Moses and the Lamb. 

" There was no uncharity, no bitterness, no intol- 
erance, in this man, towards his brethren. The 
blessing that Christ pronounced upon the peace- 
makers rests upon him forever. Who could so weep 
with those that wept, or rejoice with those that re- 
joiced ? Were not your marriages somehow a little 
more sacred when this good man's earnest supplica- 
tions and benedictions fell into your hearts like the 
early rain, and his voice of authority pronounced the 
words that made you one forever ? And who, when 
dear ones were sinking down into the last and long 
slumber, or were to be carried forth to their narrow 
beds, could bring with him into the sick-chamber or 
into the house of mourning so much that was com- 
forting and consoling ? How kind, how tender, 
how sympathetic, how faithful, how felicitous in 
manner and phrase ! His prayers were inspirations, 
and went up like sweet incense ; and when any 
man was known to be in trouble of mind or heart, 
or in distress of body, who was more likely to come 
in upon him, to minister unto him, than he who, 
alas ! will comfort our hearts no more ? 

" There are men and women in this city, some 



304 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

of whom you would never suspect of such a thing, 
who have wept for him as children might weep for 
a father, because, when they had gone astray, and 
other Christian people shunned them, he, like the 
Good Samaritan, went in where they lay bleeding, 
and ail-tenderly bound up their wounds, and spoke 
to them in words of tenderness and love. He pitied 
the fallen; he had compassion on them that were 
out of the way ; and, where nothing good was to 
be said of people, he held his peace. 

" What a glorious life his has been ! Doubtless 
he often sowed in tears ; often went forth with his 
precious seed, weeping : but now he has gone in 
with oh how many golden sheaves ! and with oh 
how glad a song ! my friends ! how poor and 
mean and hopeless an affair is our life when one 
sets up for himself in this world, and lives and labors 
for his own pleasure and glory ! It runs along mis- 
erably, and disappears in contempt and oblivion. 
But how grand and glorious and beautiful the 
ongoing and outgoing and evenness of that life 
when one puts himself heartily into God's service 
and under Christ's yoke, and labors and prays for 
God's glory and the well-being of immortal souls ! 
It flows on like a river, and loses itself at length in 
the ocean of infinite light and love and liberty." 

The interment of Mrs. Hawes took place on 
Thursday, the 13th, — just irve days after that of her 
husband. The sermon was preached by Kev. Na- 
thaniel J. Burton, then pastor of the Fourth Church 
in Hartford. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 305 

Keferring to tlie message sent by Dr. Hawes to 
the church from his bed of death, — "I leave to my 
beloved people my affectionate farewell," — "And 
that, friends," said he, " is the last word that will 
ever come from him to you. And will you not, out 
of hearts of affection, respond to him, and say, 
' Farewell, farewell, dear and faithful soul ! We 
will remember you through all the years of our 
pilgrimage here. We will keep your name in per- 
petual honor. We will recall often the pleasant 
years wherein you labored among us in word and 
doctrine, in the pulpit and in our homes, when' life 
went brightly with us, and when we were in sorrow. 
And whatever imperfections may have stained your 
service, we will forgive, as God also, for Christ's sake, 
has forgiven us. And when we, too, shall have 
ascended at last to our eternal home, among the 
first for whom we shall search among the angel 
multitudes will be you, to thank you for all you said 
and did in our behalf while here, and for that per- 
petual prayer which you now, as heretofore, offer 
unto God for us. Eest in peace, then, at the end 
of your days, — rest in peace ! ' 

" Now we go forth to the burial once more. By 
his side we shall lay down his nearest earthly friend. 
She is with him now, and his children are with him ; 
and so the family stands unbroken in the land of the 
immortals. We leave her, as we left him, in the 
ground, sorrowing that we shall never see their 
faces any more, but rejoicing in the infinite redemp- 
tion whereby they and we are delivered from the 
bondage of sin and of death." 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Dr. Hawes as a Theologian. 



IN the metaphysical sense, Dr. Hawes had little 
claim to be called a theologian ; yet he had a 
distinctive Christian theology. — a doctrine of God 
and of Christ, which, to himself, was clear and well 
defined. He had also an anthropology, — a doc- 
trine of man and of sin, — a doctrine of atonement 
and of salvation for man. He read and wrote, he 
studied and thought, a good deal upon theological 
subjects, but speculated very little. His reading, 
especially in the latter half of his ministry, was 
limited very much to the Puritan and New-England 
divines. He never aimed to originate any thing in 
doctrine, and seldom tried his hand at reconstruction ; 
in neither of which could he do much, he felt, without 
taxing the credulity of his people, or arousing'useless 
cavil and opposition. He was not fond of metaphys- 
ics ; though, in his early course, he paid some atten- 
tion to this branch of study. He was jealous of any 
thing that might tend to confuse his hearers, or 
weaken his power of a strong, practical impression. 
He did not feel exactly with Burke, that there is no 
heart so hard as that of a thoroughly-bred metaphy- 

306 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 307 

sician. He agreed more nearly with Frederick II. of 
Prussia, who thought such men were like well-diggers : 
the deeper they dig, the more darkness they find. 

" Let neither vanity, nor ambition, nor vain 
curiosity," he writes, " draw me into speculations 
foreign to the great purpose of my life, — preach- 
ing the gospel.'' 

Of one of his classmates he wrote while in the 
seminary, " Brother P has put me out of all pa- 
tience this evening with his metaphysics. There is 
no beating him out of his vexatious propensity to 
speculate on the nature of matter, of space, of time, 
&c. The darker the subject, the better ; and the 
more curious and purely speculative, the more 
greedily does he seize upon it. He will deal in 
abstractions about the nature of an atom by the hour, 
but would not care a whit if Bonaparte should set up 
his standard on Boston Common." 

" There is very little," he says, " of that nice 
metaphysical carefulness of statement and guard ed- 
ness in the Scriptures which cut such a figure in 
many of the theological discussions of our clay." 
And yet Dr. Hawes did not disallow the legitimate 
province of reason in theology : he made a free 
use of it, particularly in the department of evidence 
and the authentication of the Bible as God's word. 
But, this question settled, he allowed neither his 
own nor any other man's fallible reason to turn 
him from the infallible decisions of the Scriptures. 
" Reason," he said, " cannot explain every thing ; 
nor can it fairly object to what in revelation lies 
above its comprehension." This was with him a first 



308 LIFE OF DR. II A WES. 

principle, a simple and safe philosophy. " We can't 
know every thing," he was accustomed to say; "and 
there is no use in trying. It is better to be well 
settled in what we can comprehend and make use 
of than to spend our strength vainly in struggling 
after what we cannot know, and could not use if we 
did." 

Thus, partly from natural taste, and partly from 
conviction of what was best for him, he sought only 
to become a plain, biblical theologian ; and this 
ascendency of the practical over the philosophical 
helped to keep him from the whims and fancies of 
his own and also of other minds, and from that 
temptation to leadership by which speculative men 
are sometimes beset. 

As to the type of his theology, it was neither 
new nor altogether old, but partly both. Like the 
instructed scribe, he brought forth out of his treasure 
things new and old ; though, of substantial doctrine, 
nothing newer than the New Testament, nor older 
than the Old. He was an admirer of Dr. Emmons, 
but did not relish his theological oddities. 

When the Unitarian controversy was commencing, 
in 1815, and the first gun was fired by Mr. Evarts in 
"The Panoplist," Dr. Hawes was a student in the 
seminary at Andover. With the ardor of a youthful 
soldier he watched the movements of the parties, — 
the passages at arms between those skilful polemics, 
Worcester and Channing, on the question of no 
creeds and non-fellowship. When the second cam- 
paign was going on, in 1819, between Channing and 
Stuart, Woods and Ware, he had entered on his 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 309 

ministry at Hartford. Although he took no active 
part, there was never a doubt on which side he 
stood. 

In 1828, what was called the Connecticut con- 
troversy was opened by the " Concio ad Clerum " 
of Dr. Taylor. Notwithstanding Dr. Hawes's dislike 
of metaphysical speculation, — from personal friend- 
ship, and his thought that possibly others might 
improve theology a little, though he could not, — he 
looked with some favor upon this new movement, 
yet also with a little fear. 

Ten years before, he came from the seminary to 
Hartford, bringing with him the Andover theology ; 
and as his second birth was into a full belief in the 
doctrines of the Catechism, which he even wished to 
teach his scholars at Weymouth, he could not detach 
himself essentially from the old paths. Yet, when 
he heard that a society was being started for the 
purpose of assailing the New-Haven theology, he 
did not like the movement, as he was opposed to 
division: so he addressed to his friend, Dr. Taylor, 
the following letter of inquiry : — 

"Hartford, Dec. 1, 1831. 

" My dear Brother, — I have learned within a few 
days that a Connecticut Doctrinal Tract Society was 
established some time since at Norwich. The origin, 
organization, and object of this society, as explained 
to me in a communication from two of our minis- 
terial brethren fully acquainted with the subject, 
are manifestly sectarian. I think I know the man 
or men who are at the bottom of it ; and, unless I 



310 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

am totally misinformed respecting their movements 
in this business, their object is to embody an in- 
fluence against what they call New-Haven divinity, 
— a very sorry object, in my opinion, for which to 
divide the ministers and churches of Connecticut. 

" I write to learn what you know respecting this 
society, and what, in your opinion, should be done 
to help or to hinder its prosperity. A society found- 
ed on liberal principles, and designed to state and 
defend the doctrines of our common Christianity, or, 
if you please, the peculiar doctrines of our denomi- 
nation, I should welcome with all my heart; but 
the aspect of this thing, so far as I now under- 
stand it, I wholly dislike. Its success, I should think, 
in its present form, is very improbable ; and yet I 
am not without fear that it may, to some extent, set 
brethren to quarrelling, and, alas ! about nothing. 

" Dr. Day is the reported president of this society. 
Was he consulted in its formation ? or does he know 
how it was gotten up, and for what purpose ? I am 
pained at the aspect of the times. What a melan- 
choly character does the Church of God exhibit to 
the world ! — jealousy, division, and strife through- 
out all her borders. When shall these things cease, 
and those who love the Lord Jesus Christ learn to 
love one another, and to give themselves to the 
great work of promoting holiness in the world ? My 
late tour has given me a far deeper impression than 
I ever before had of the number and magnitude of 
the obstacles which exist, even in Christian lands, 
to the progress of the gospel. The power of God 
can alone remove them. This is an old truth ; but 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 311 

I feel it more deeply than ever. There is but little 
holiness in the world ; but little, I may say, in the 
nominal church. But the promise is sure. The 
earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord ; 
and happy they who employ all their talents in has- 
tening this consummation of God's plan. Let me 
hear from you immediately ; and believe me, as ever, 
" Yours most affectionately, 

"J. Hawes." 

Being substantially Old School in his theology, and 
circumstantially New, Dr. Hawes, in 1832, endeav- 
ored to act as a mediator between the two parties 
then led by Drs. Taylor and Tyler. He loved har- 
mony and peace, especially among Christian brethren. 
Under the impression that Dr. Taylor was not cor- 
rectly understood, that he was misunderstood, and 
thence suffered unjustly from the imputation of 
errors which he did not hold, he wrote a letter to 
him, proposing that he should make a brief state- 
ment of his faith on the mooted questions in 
distinct and explicit articles. The statement was 
prepared and published in "The Connecticut Ob- 
server." It was as conciliatory as the writer's con- 
victions of truth would permit, and was accompa- 
nied by explanatory paragraphs. Standing alone, 
the articles would have brought a measure of relief 
to the friends of the old theology ; but the expla- 
nations were so understood as to prevent this, and 
little was gained by the mediation. 

Should it be asked if Dr. Hawes was a Taylorite, 
" No " is the only answer that would do him and the 



312 . LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

truth full justice, though with leanings at first in 
that direction. Was he a Tylerite ? No : he was 
neither the one nor the other, yet partly both. He 
accepted Dr. Taylor's practical theology, but was 
not satisfied with all his speculations. He agreed 
with Dr. Tyler in the substance of his creed, but 
did not like some of his metaphysics, and modes of 
presentation. He was a follower of neither, for he 
called no man master; but he was a friend and 
Christian brother to both. 

In the excitement of the times, he said some tart 
things about the old confessions, and made some 
flings now and then at the Catechism ; but he did 
not fling either of them so far away but that he 
called them both back, and made them helpers in 
his troubles with Dr. Bushnell ; and he wished to 
have them laid as the symbolic basis of our Con- 
gregational churches. 

His objections to these symbols were not to the 
general forms of expression, but to the miscon- 
structions, the unhistorical sense, placed upon one 
or two phrases, and to the caricatures which have 
become popular through their frequent repetition by 
opposers. When, in the preliminaries for the Na- 
tional Congregational Council in 1865, the re-adop- 
tion of our old Confession— of Saybrook and Boston, 
of the Savoy and the Westminster Assembly — was 
named to him, " Try it," he says, " try it ; but I am 
afraid it cannot be carried." And, when it was 
adopted, no one rejoiced more heartily than he 
in the harmony of the action and the growing union 
and prosperity of the Congregational churches which 
it promised. 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 313 

This practical tendency will explain the fact that 
so very little was found among the sermons of Dr. 
Hawes in the form of systematic or metaphysical 
theology. He never attempted a theodicy : he sel- 
dom undertook to give reasons for the divine ad- 
ministration, or to explain its mysteries. As to the 
great problem of evil in the world, so easy of solu- 
tion to some, he seems hardly to have ventured a 
conjecture, much less a theory. 

"This Providence," he says, — "what a deep 
unknown, what a sea unfathomable, is it to us! 
Look back and read the history of the past, and how 
much do we discover that seems to us profoundly 
mysterious and utterly inexplicable in this our 
night-state of being ! How different a world is this 
from what we might expect to proceed from the 
hand of such a being as God ! and how differently 
has it been and is governed ! Whence came sin and 
all the misery and woe which have overspread the 
world for six thousand years ? 

" If God is infinitely powerful, how easily might 
he have prevented the evils under which our race 
has so long groaned and suffered and died ! If he 
is infinitely wise and good, why did he not do it ? 
So we reason ; and yet we are confronted by stern 
facts, and our reasoning is nought. This whole 
subject is wrapped in deep mystery. I see no way 
to explain the difficulties involved in it. The facts 
are before me. I feel their pressure on my spirit, 
and I see their crushing weight as they fall upon my 
fellow-men : but no ray of light comes to disclose to 
me the reason why sin came into the world \ why 



314 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

the earth is strewed with the dying and the dead ; 
and why such multitudes are left to live and die in 
their sins,, and be lost forever. It is night, dark 
night, in my view, in relation to all that is connected 
with the existence of natural and moral evil, and 
the terrible consequences that are to result from this 
state of things in a future world." 

Yet of the harmony of these stern facts with 
God's infinite wisdom, power, and love, Dr. Hawes 
had the most unquestioning and satisfying belief; 
and, in the entire government of God, the great- 
est comfort and delight. 

He neither preached nor wrote a body of di- 
vinity, as was the custom of many of the earlier and 
some of the later ministers of New England. He 
scarcely wrote what could be called a series of 
sermons on any doctrinal subject. Of the only two 
that approach this character, one was on regenera- 
tion, prepared with reference to the discussions on 
that subject in the Connecticut controversy : the 
other, relating to the difficulties with Dr. Bushnell, 
was on the character and work of Christ. 

While, in the treatment of sin and regeneration, 
some of the new distinctions, and modes of expres- 
sion, were employed, the fundamental and long- 
accredited views were held forth with great clearness 
and strength. 

In regard to the means in regeneration, in a 
sermon from 1 Cor. iv. 15, Dr. Hawes says, " We 
may admit that God has power to regenerate men 
without means : so he has power to cause a harvest 
to grow out of an untilled soil, and to give knowl- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 315 

edge and wealth arid happiness without any labor 
on the part of man. But does he do it ? Is this 
the established method of his operation ? If there 
are no means of regeneration such as have been spe- 
cified, why has God given to men his Word, his Sab- 
bath, his sanctuary, and the various institutions and 
ordinances of the gospel ? What is the design of 
these things, if there is no adaptation, no tendency 
in them to bring men to repentance and to God, 
and fit them for heaven ? " 

In a sermon, from John i. 13, on the agency of 
the Holy Spirit in regeneration, he says, " I wish to 
show, that while, from the first serious purpose in 
the mind of a sinner to attend to the subject of 
religion, to the last act in which he gives himself 
to God, he acts, not as a passive machine, but as a 
free, moral agent, it is at the same time true, and a 
truth of the greatest importance to be believed, 
that he acts under a divine influence, and that this 
influence is the efficient cause of the change which 
makes him a Christian, and seals him an heir of life. 
I shall aim in this, as in previous discourses on this 
general subject, to make my remarks as experimental 
and practical as possible, deriving them from facts 
and the Bible, paying little regard to any metaphysi- 
cal theory or theological system. 

" It will not surely be said that He who made the 
mind cannot, by influences of his own, change its 
moral dispositions and habits, so that, from being 
sinful and selfish, it shall come to delight itself in 
God and holiness. 

" The change, moreover, is one which is plainly 



316 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

needed by man. Man is a sinner, an apostate from 
his God ; by nature wholly indisposed to render him 
the service and the homage which are his due. 

" The sinner is guilty ; and he is as weak and 
helpless as he is guilty. Not that his weakness and 
helplessness are of such a nature as in the least to 
excuse his sin, or invalidate his obligation to love 
and obey God. He has all the powers and faculties 
of a free moral agent ; and nothing prevents his 
turning to God but his own perverseness of heart, 
his own cherished love of sin, and dislike of holiness. 
But these are such, so fixed and obstinate, that he 
knows, if left to himself, he shall never overcome 
them, but shall continue in sin, and finally perish. 

"This agency is not, properly speaking, miracu- 
lous i for it does not counteract or suspend any 
law of mind. But it is supernatural ; and that 
because it is an agency or influence over and be- 
yond what man or angel can exert, or all the means 
of grace which God has appointed for the instruction 
and salvation of men. These have their proper 
place, and are indispensable in the work of regenera- 
tion; but means have no power in themselves to 
effect this change. 

" In the application of means you may enlighten 
and instruct ; you may improve and polish the out- 
side : but this is all you can do. You have not 
reached the heart : that remains the same. The 
love of God is not there ; his authority is not estab- 
lished over the inner man : but the elements of 
selfishness and sin still predominate, and mark the 
subject as an alien from his God. And so he will 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 317 

remain under all the culture that can be bestowed 
upon him, till Divine Power interposes to render 
that culture effectual." 

On the person and work of Christ Dr. Hawes was 
equally explicit, and decided against all Socinian, 
Arian, Sabellian, Apollinarian, and Pantheistic spec- 
ulations, and whatever else militated against the 
eternal distinctions of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 
in the Godhead, and whatever jeopardized the 
doctrines of atonement, and justification by faith. 
In a sermon from John i. 29, "Behold the Lamb 
of God ! " he says of Christ, — 

" He was the victim appointed and accepted of 
God as a propitiatory sacrifice to be offered up in 
suffering and death, to make atonement for the sins 
of the world. The phrase, ' to take away sin/ never 
in the Scriptures signifies to remove sin, or to ex- 
tirpate it from the heart or from the world ; but it 
means to bear the penal consequences of sin, to 
expiate and forgive it. 

" The meaning of our text, then, may be thus 
expressed : c Behold Him whom God hath sent to 
make atonement for the sins of the human race ! ' or, 
( Behold the Saviour of mankind, whom God has 
sent to suffer and die as a sacrificial victim, to make 
expiation for the sins of the world ! ' 

In a brief review of thirty years of his ministry, — 
" Two Discourses/' delivered in 1848, — " I deem it 
proper to state," says Dr. Hawes, " that the system 
of doctrine and duty which has constituted the basis 



318 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

and the burden of my preaching during the time 
I have served you in the ministry is the same, for 
substance, which has been taught and held in this 
church ever since its establishment two hundred and 
twelve years ago. 

" In respect to Dr. Strong, my immediate prede- 
cessor, I know of no man, living or departed, with 
whose views of religious doctrine and duty my own 
more nearly accord. He was a great and good man ; 
and he was owned of God as an eminent instrument 
of reviving; religion in this church and congregation, 
and of distinguished usefulness to the cause of Christ 
in general. It was my privilege to enter into his 
labors ; and, though I call no man father upon earth, 
it has been matter of great satisfaction that I have 
not felt myself under any necessity of pulling down 
what he built up, but have been able to hold the 
same system of truth, and pursue the same general 
course in my preaching, which were so eminently 
blessed of God under his ministrations. 

u These are the principles on which this church 
was planted, and in the faith of which it has pros- 
pered. They are the principles on which the New- 
England churches in general were planted, and in 
the faith of which they have prospered as no other 
churches ever did since the days of the apostles. 
And I conclude at present by repeating the words 
of two of the venerable fathers of New England, 
uttered by them just before they ascended to their 
reward in heaven : * — 

" ' We do earnestly testify, that, if any who are 

* Rev. John Higginson and Rev. William Hubbard. 



LIFE OF DR. HATVES. 319 

given to change do rise up to unhinge the well- 
established churches in this land from these prin- 
ciples, it will be the duty and interest of the churches 
to examine whether the men of this trespass are 
more prayerful, more watchful, more zealous, more 
patient, more heavenly, more universally conscien- 
tious, and harder students, and better scholars, and 
more willing to be informed and advised, than those 
great and good men who left unto the churches 
what they now enjoy : if they be not so, it will be 
wisdom for the children to forbear pulling down 
with their own hands the houses of God which were 
built by their wiser fathers, until they have better 
satisfaction.' " 

Later (1859), in an "Address at the One Hundred 
and Fiftieth Anniversary of the General Association 
of Connecticut," Dr. Hawes says, respecting the faith 
of the First Church in Hartford, " Slight deviations 
there may have been, but never such as to shake or 
mar the fundamentals of its faith, — its first faith. 
Always Calvinistic, always holding the great essen- 
tials of New-England orthodoxy, it has never swung 
from the foundations on which it was built by Hooker 
and Stone, nor been carried about or disturbed by 
any of the many winds of doctrine that have swept 
over the land." 

Notwithstanding this adamantine firmness of faith, 
Dr. Hawes was as tolerant of the differences and 
divergences of other men from himself as one 
of his cast of character could well be. To those 
who were moving towards the light he was con- 
ciliatory and sympathetic \ but with those who, in 



320 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

these days of illumination, were receding, as he 
thought, from the great central truths into darkness, 
he had little patience. His contentment in Christ 
was to£> great to allow of that speculative unrest 
which causes to some so much discomfort. He was 
blessed with too-frequent revivals to leave room for 
much vacillation and uncertainty about his creed. 
He was not properly a schoolman, except where 
Christ is the Master. " Nothing," he says, " will settle 
a wavering mind like a spirit which delights to sit 
at the feet of Jesus." 

This Hartford pastor adhered strongly to the 
Congregational polity. He believed that it was 
more simple and effective, more ancient and biblical, 
than any other ; that it tends more to intelligence, to 
freedom from all hierarchical oppression and political 
entanglements, and to that civil and religious liberty 
which the gospel inculcates. 

After attending a meeting; of the General As- 
sembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1831, and 
observing the long processes of discipline from the 
session to the presbytery, from the presbytery to 
the synod, and from the synod to the General As- 
sembly, he made this brief entry in his journal : 
" Too long a team : I should not like to be harnessed 
in it." Later, he lost all satisfaction in the "Plan 
of Union," where both the parties came under the 
bands of presbytery, and by which some two thou- 
sand churches originally Congregational are now in- 
cluded in the Presbyterian unity. He thought it 
too much like the old English statutes for marriage, 
by which the twain were made one ; but the one 
was always the man. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 321 

But his fellowship of the various evangelical de- 
nominations was catholic and most cordial. " If 
there is anyone thing/' he said, " for which Con- 
gregationalism is distinguished , it is its unsectarian, 
its broad, catholic spirit towards other branches of 
the Christian Church." 

He felt the need of a little more ecclesiastical 
and doctrinal unity, especially in his later years. 
In his discourses before the Congregational Board 
of Publication in 1859, he says, " We are a large, 
a growing, an enterprising, and a progressive de- 
nomination. "What we want is a little more ballast, 
a little more steadiness of helm in working the ship ; 
in a word, more organic unity, more compactness 
of association, of creed and order. If you ask how 
this can be effected, it is not for me to mark out 
the plan. I believe it to be practicable ; and I have 
the strongest conviction of its great importance 
to the purity, growth, and spiritual influence of our 
denomination. I have hoped I should live to see it. 
Let this be done in the true spirit of Christian con- 
cession and love, — and done so it must be, if done 
at all, — and I should be almost ready to exclaim 
with Simeon of old, i Now lettest thou thy servant 
depart in peace.' " 



CHAPTER XVn. 

Dr. Hawes as a Preacher and Philanthropist. 

FROM the time when Dr. Hawes first decided on 
the Christian ministry, preaching was the up- 
permost thought with him. This, more than any 
thing else, formed his character, and gave its 
impress to his people, and, so far as he was able, to 
the times in which he lived. " To be accounted 
worthy to preach the gospel," he wrote, a is the 
highest honor for which I pant, — the only object 
for which I would spend my strength and life." 
This was his noblest ambition. 

"Go preach the gospel" came as a commission 
from the Master, directly from heaven ; and to obey 
was with him both a necessity and a delight. He 
might fail ; but he felt it was divinely decreed that 
he should try. This feeling was as a fire in his 
bones, and would burn and blaze out. He began 
lay-preaching almost as soon as he commenced his 
preparation for college ; and he continued it, as he 
had opportunity, while studying and teaching, as 
well as in his vacations. While engaged as an 
assistant in Phillips Academy, he wrote to a friend, 
" School -keeping is not my chosen employment: 

322 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. , 323 

it is foreign to the great object of my life ; and I 
cannot^ therefore, be happy in it." 

His attention was early drawn to the apostle Paul 
as a model ; and of one of his first written sermons 
he says, " I have lately been meditating a discourse 
on the character of Paul as a preacher. It has been 
running in my mind all day ; and has so seized my 
thoughts, that I cannot get rid of it." A few days 
later he writes, " If I succeed in drawing his char- 
acter as a preacher, I cannot but hope it will be 
of use to me as well as to others. It seems to me 
that in this respect he is perfect. It is a more diffi- 
cult task than I imagined ; but I love him more 
than ever, and feel more desirous to imitate him in 
zeal, fidelity, and plainness in dispensing the Word." 

The analysis of the character of Dr. Hawes as a 
preacher discloses the following as regulative and 
formative ideas : — 

First, he felt that the great object of the gospel is 
the restoration of men, as sinners, to God and 
holiness, through Christ. The first sermon that he 
preached in the seminary was on " The Dominion 
of the Heart over the Intellect," from Luke xxiv. 
41 : " They believed not for joy." " In composing 
this sermon," he says, "I often offered up the 
prayer, that my simple object in every discourse 
I write might be to win souls to Christ, and to feed 
his sheep and lambs." 

Next to this came his feeling of dependence for 
success in preaching on the efficacy of prayer. He 
never left his study to preach without prayer. He 
never went to a lecture or prayer-meeting, when 



324 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

the circumstances would permit, without prayer. 
He had a profound faith in the influence of the 
Holy Spirit on both preacher and hearers, as the 
life-giving power of the gospel, and means of success 
in preaching. 

Then he was thoroughly bent on so preaching as 
to make an impression. In his preparatory studies 
he met with the motto of John Knox, — " Spare no 
arrows." "This," he said, "I have inscribed upon 
my forehead, and intend to make the rule of my 
action. I would not only spare no arrows, but I 
would take heed not to blunt their points by wrap- 
ping them in silk or satin. I would have them 
sharp, naked, and barbed too, so that they should 
not only enter, but sticky Hence he lost nothing 
by random efforts. He always had a definite object, 
— a mark to aim at ; and he usually hit it. He had 
a strong disgust at pointless sermons. 

To get as much truth as possible before his people, 
and in as plain a way, was another ruling thought 
with him. From his settlement in the ministry, 
more and more did the question press on 'him, how 
to preach so as to satisfy the educated and the 
uneducated, and best meet the wants of the entire 
congregation. While riding to New Haven alone 
in his carriage, and pondering the same problem, 
" This text," he says, " came to my mind : c Light is 
sweet ; and a pleasant thing it is to behold the sun.' 
With the text came the comment I made upon it : 
Truth, God's truth especially, is eternally, and must 
be, interesting to the mind of man ; and, if I can 
succeed in getting that truth before the minds of my 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 325 

people, I shall not fail to interest and instruct all 
classes of them, be their cultivation and tastes and 
habits ever so dissimilar. This, then, shall be the 
great, leading object of my preaching : I will get 
as much of God's truth into my sermons as I can ; 
and I will aim to express it in language so plain and 
simple as to convey it in the most direct manner to 
the minds of my hearers, and lodge it there. Truth, 
God's truth, pure, unmixed with human specula- 
tions, just as I find it in the Bible, — that shall be 
the staple of my preaching ; and language and meta- 
phor and figure and all else shall be held subservient 
to this one aim, — getting truth, God's truth, before 
the minds of my people, so that they shall see and 
understand it." 

Further: it was a principle early adopted, and 
never abandoned, that all his time and strength 
were not too much for his work as a gospel-preacher. 
Hence he kept entirely clear of every diverting 
avocation. His authorship was confined almost ex- 
clusively to the republication of his sermons. One 
thing to do, one thing to care for, one thing to think 
of, — this was his motto. That one thing was 
preaching. "If I do not experience some very 
great change in my present taste and resolutions," 
he wrote while preparing for the ministry, " I am 
confident I shall never secularize the sacred office, 
nor, in connection with preaching the gospel, engage 
in any worldly pursuits." Preaching was a passion 
with him, a very nature. 

The dominancy of these ideas explains much of 
the popularity and success of Dr. Hawes as a 



326 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

preacher. To drop God's truth as seed into man's 
heart ; and pray God's Spirit to make it spring and 
bear fruit, was his great work. This did not re- 
quire splendid talents or vast stores of learning. 
He could not have made much use of the fine 
arts, or the profound philosophies, or the natural 
sciences, in doing what, with these ideas, God 
enabled him to accomplish. These primal prin- 
ciples account in part for that remarkable succes- 
sion of revivals which he used to call his "harvest 
seasons ; " and for those frequent intervals when a 
few would come to his study, one by one or in 
groups, to inquire the way into the kingdom, — " si- 
lent dew-drops of grace," as he designated them. 

Among the accessories of this pulpit-power of the 
Hartford preacher was, — 

1st, His transparent, granitic honesty. This was 
something more than sincerity, and broader and 
deeper than mere convictions. It was a thorough 
uprightness of purpose and feeling ; a large, social, 
and moral fairness and frankness in treating both 
his subject and his auditors. Every one saw and 
felt that he had no dupery nor duplicity. He used 
no guile nor traps to catch men with, — nothing but 
truth and love. There was a radical force in this 
self- oblivious presentation of the great, glad tidings. 
It tended to disarm prejudice. It elicited confidence, 
and procured favor for both the preacher and his 
God-given message. There was no affectation, no 
pretence of any kind. He hated self-conceit, flashi- 
ness, and sham, everywhere, but most of all in the 
pulpit and in a minister. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 327 

2d, A natural and attractive awkwardness. It was 
attractive because so exceedingly awkward ; and it 
had a kind of gracefulness, because so perfectly 
natural and easy. It was in part a something born 
with him, and in part a habit acquired at the anvil. 
It illustrated his own rule : " What is easy and natu- 
ral is not only better understood, but is always 
more pleasing and impressive." 

In his energetic passages, when he kindled into 
enthusiasm, there was now a sledge-hammer swing 
of the long arm, and now a Vulcan-like stroke of the 
heavy hand ; then, in some sharp turn or check of 
thought, would come the indicative forefinger shoot- 
ing up or down, or a sudden out-pushing of the 
large, open palms, with an emphatic ejaculation, 
" Pause, my hearers, pause ! " 

It is a physical law, that magnetic forces flow most 
freely in curved lines ; but there was a kind of 
charm in the artless angularity of Dr. Hawes's pul- 
pit action, which was sometimes singularly effective. 
It served to keep off drowsiness from his hearers, 
and to excite their curiosity, if nothing more : often 
it drew and fixed their attention on what was 
uttered. He laid no claim to a polished manner or 
finished elocution; though he highly prized these in 
men who knew how to use them. He thoroughly 
reprobated all theatrical gymnastics and pulpit bom- 
bastry. With a voice clear, strong, and easily modu- 
lated, he never resorted to elocutionary thunder; 
for he knew that it is the lightning which strikes, 
and not the noise. 

3d, Propriety, simplicity, and perspicuity were 



328 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

accessory elements in the effectiveness of Dr. Hawes 
as a preacher. A careful examination of his ser- 
mons, manuscript and published, discloses these 
as marked qualities in them. Mere propriety is 
not an attractive feature of style or of any thing 
else, though marked improprieties are very con- 
spicuous blemishes ; nor does perspicuity always 
pass among sermon hearers and readers at its real 
value. Those who make deep things clear, and the 
difficult plain and easy, are often mistaken for sim- 
pletons, instead of good thinkers and writers. When 
the right words fall into their place naturally, as if 
they grew there, and no wrong ones appear ; when 
each word and sentence performs well its own part, 
and helps others to perform theirs, in the clear and 
forcible expression of a preacher's thoughts, — the 
simplicity and naturalness constitute a fundamental 
excellence in sermonizing. 

This combination of qualities in more than an 
ordinary degree marks the discourses of Dr. Hawes. 
They had in them nothing explosive or startling, 
and they produced no shock. Hence he was never 
regarded as a sensational, and not always admitted 
as a striking preacher. He did not abound in im- 
agery and figures ; though he was very far from 
ignoring them, as Calvin and Emmons did. Ro- 
settes he eschewed entirely, and made a spare use 
of roses and other flowers of rhetoric. No empty 
elegances or mere platitudes found their way into 
his discourses. He was never dazzling, never flashy; 
but there are many passages, in his sermons, of sin- 
gular force and beauty. He never rushed along like 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 329 

a locomotive on its stiff iron track ; though his 
mind sometimes moved rapidly in the broad high- 
ways of thought. If he did not go up like a rocket, 
he would sometimes, like a skilful aeronaut, bear 
on the wings of his words a whole assembly of eager 
listeners up into the purer regions of his own spir- 
itual aspirations. The secret of this pulpit-power is 
found in part in his thorough earnestness, and partly 
in these two brief canons of Dr. Emmons : — 

First, Have something to say. 

Second, Say it. 

An acute critic and a good judge of sermons and 
sermonizing wrote in 1854 of Dr. Hawes as a 
preacher, " He appeals more to the judgment and 
understanding than to the passions, or even intellect. 
He seldom advances new ideas; but old Christian 
truths are clothed in an attractive form, and pre- 
sented with a force and power of illustration and 
argument seldom heard. Dr. Hawes seems never 
to use a superfluous word, and never repeats an 
idea. You feel, in listening to him, that he has not 
half exhausted his subject, or his power to treat it; 
and that he could not have used fewer words, or 
words that would more fitly express and give point 
and force to his thought." 

He was an original writer in the sense of not 
being an imitator. He could not successfully have 
imitated any one ; and he never made the attempt. 
It was necessary for him to be simply Joel Hawes, 
both in the pulpit and out of it ; and in this was 
the hiding of his power. 

His style was peculiarly his own, — the result, as 



330 'LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

appears from the testimony of his classmates and his 
own journal; of great care and labor. The material 
of his sermons was also his own, and by the best of 
rights ; though he did not bring it " from afar." He 
got it out of the Bible, out of history, out of nature 
and his own experience. He picked it up at minis- 
ters' meetings, in parish calls, in conversation, and 
in the by-ways of life, as well as from books. He 
bought it; he borrowed it; he would even steal it 
out of the heads of his neighbors and brother-minis- 
ters, — any thing, so that he might use it for the 
good of his fellow-men. The apostle had said, " All 
things are yours;" and he laid claim to his property 
wherever he could find it and had a use for it. 

4th, Dr. Hawes's sympathy with Christ as a 
Saviour, and with his fellow-men as sinners, more 
than any thing else, explains his pulpit-power. 
This gave him confidence in the gospel as a remedy, 
and earnestness and skill in applying it. He was a 
man of deep feeling, though no sentimentalist. His 
attachments as a husband, father, and pastor, were 
exceedingly strong ; and his faith drew him to Christ, 
by the force of his entire emotional nature, in a 
sweet, all- controlling, personal friendship. This Was 
the heart-power of the gospel. It made him one 
with Jesus Christ in his whole redeeming work. He 
believed most undoubtingly in the gospel as just what 
man in his lost state needs, in his own divine com- 
mission to preach it, and in love as the conquering 
power. This removed all timidity, and prevented 
apathy : it made him both bold and earnest in 
proffering this gospel, and gave him a hearty love 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. ' 331 

for his work, and a warm and tender sympathy with 
those for whom he labored. 

Hence his ardor was not an intermittent fever, 
but a ceaseless, all-pervading fervor of soul. It 
glowed in the preparation of his discourses as well 
as in their delivery, and gave them a double birth, — 
one in the study, and the other in the pulpit. 

He uttered himself confidently, because he took 
the Bible as his law-book as well as his text-book ; 
and he spake " as one having authority," because 
he spake, " not in the words which man's wisdom 
teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." He 
tendered God's offers of mercy to the miserable and 
guilty, with no fear of disappointment in those who 
should accept them ; and the terrible force of divine 
judgments pronounced upon the persistently rebel- 
lious came from his " Thus saith the Lord." 

How could he have any patience with the modern 
progressive school, which takes its gospel from the 
intuitions of the preacher, the newspaper, or from 
the spirit of the age, and is ever newly adjusting 
the Bible to its ceaseless mutations? He felt, with 
Neancler, that-" the true dignity of the preacher is 
in being simply the organ of the Divine Word, and 
nothing else. His glory is, that it is not he who 
speaks, but God that speaks by him." 

He could not, therefore, compromise either his 
character or his doctrine by compounding with these 
new gospellers. He could not soften the hard 
things of the Bible to suit the capricious ears 
of covetous or epicurean sinners. He was not a 
mercurial polemic ; yet he would not flee like 



332 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

a hireling from the conflict with false doctrine 
when rationalists and sentimentalists were leaving 
no refuge for the truth but the pulpit, and when it 
had been driven from so many pulpits. " I have 
been aware/' he says, " that the inculcation of 
some of the doctrines and duties on which I have 
much insisted was little adapted to excite admira- 
tion or win applause : but I trust I can truly say, 
that it has not been so much my object to please 
my hearers as to save them ; not so much to gain 
their good opinion as to stand approved of my God 
and Judge. I have not preached philosophy nor 
metaphysics nor poetry nor fiction nor science; 
but I have aimed to preach the gospel, and to 
preach it plainly and fully." 

Of a certain style of flowery, sensational preach- 
ing, he says, " It wants entirely the elements of 
pulpit-power; it wants truth; it wants weight of 
thought ; it wants real sincerity and earnestness : 
and the people sitting under its soft and delicately- 
exciting ministries remain as unmoved, as unaf- 
fected, on spiritual things, as the dead when the 
nightingale sings, or the gentle breezes of summer 
pass over their graves." 

" Many ministers of the present day," said Daniel 
Webster, " take their text from St. Paul, and preach 
from the newspapers. When they do so, I prefer to 
enjoy my own thoughts rather than to listen. I 
want my pastor to come to me in the spirit of the 
gospel, saying, ' You are mortal ; your probation is 
brief ; your work must be done speedily. You are 
immortal too. You are hastening to the bar of 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 333 

God : the Judge standeth before the door ! ' When 
I am thus admonished, I have no disposition to muse 
or to sleep." 

When Turner, the great painter, was asked by a 
lady the secret of his success, "Labor, madam," 
was his reply, — "labor." Dr. Hawes was a most 
laborious student in the matter of preaching. He 
employed all his talents, acquisitions, and skill in 
the arrangement and composition of his sermons, 
yet did not trust to talent, acquisitions, or skill, for 
effect, but relied solely on God ; and God honored 
this reliance. When in college, he was called a 
plodder, "a dig;" and some who thought them- 
selves geniuses laughed at him. But the plodders 
are the only real geniuses ; and the laughers are 
often, in the end, the laughed at. 

" Men give me some credit for genius," said Alex- 
ander Hamilton. "All the genius I have is just this: 
when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly; 
day and night it is before me ; I explore it in all 
its bearings ; my mind becomes pervaded with it. 
Then the effort which I make is what the people call 
the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and 
thought." 

"It would interest the friends of Dr. Hawes," 
says one who knew him in all the intimacies of 
ministerial and brotherly communion, "if I could 
tell them how few times in the intercourse of thir- 
teen years I went to his house, and found him out 
of his study when in health ; or in his study, and 
away from his writing-table ; or at his writing-table, 
and employed with any thing but the ceaseless and 



334 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

ever-agreeable work of making sermons. Ten years 
after I left Hartford, I was making an annual visit 
to the city, and called of a morning at the parson- 
age in Grove Street. The care of the Centre-Church 
pulpit no longer demanded the service of brain or 
pen; but, as I opened the study-door, there sat 
the tireless and incessant ^writer, and under his 
even-paced quill an old discourse was acquiring new 
freshness and symmetry and strength. What he 
would do with it when finished, he could not predict, 
had not asked ; but work, and work at sermons, was 
to him what the flowing of its current is to the 
Connecticut Eiver. I am not certain that he could 
perform as much intellectual labor in an hour or a 
week as some other men; but I should hardly 
know where to look for the thinker or writer who 
could keep weariness at a greater distance, or fill 
thirty consecutive years with a larger number of 
laborious days." 

In 1859, Dr. Hawes preached a sermon before 
the Congregational Board of Publication. There 
was nothing brilliant in it, nothing particularly 
striking ; yet it was a remarkably suggestive and 
productive discourse. It was a seed dropped into 
the soil of Congregationalism, which sprang up, and 
six years later bore as fruit the National Congrega- 
tional Council, and seems likely still further to bear 
a stated National Conference. Among the things 
essential to the improvement and extension of Con- 
gregationalism, he discusses a ministry trained to 
the spirit and wants of the times. Of our present 
course of ministerial training he asks, — 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 335 

" Does it not tend to cultivate the intellect, rather 
than the heart? to make preaching literary and 
scholar-like, rather than evangelical and searching ? 
in a word, does it not savor more of the school of 
Gamaliel, than of Christ ? more of high, literary cul- 
ture, than of a deep, mellow-toned, earnest purpose 
to convert souls ? The preaching of our day, it is 
admitted, is more learned and tasteful and accom- 
plished than formerly ; but it is less bold, direct, and 
home in its dealings with the souls of men : its topics 
are more multiform and varied, but less fraught with 
evangelical truth and doctrine ; are discussed more 
elegantly, but less impressively; in a style more 
elaborate and finished, but less suited to reach the 
sensibilities, and stir the deep springs of feeling and 
action in the inner man. Instead of coming right 
out in the strength of God, in the naked sword of 
the Spirit, to do battle with sin and wickedness, it is 
common for the preaching which naturally grows out 
of the present process of culture to study to be inge- 
nious, original, elegant ; to deliver literary sermons, 
great sermons, popular sermons. To this end, in- 
stead of confining itself within its proper commis- 
sion, — that of delivering God's message in God's 
way, — it ranges abroad to find novel and strange 
subjects, and seeks to handle them in a new and 
original way; decking them out in tropes and figures 
and all fine things just suited to make the whole 
exhibition elegant and popular, it may be, but 
utterly ineffective .and powerless. Preaching, it 
seems to me, often fails of effect because it does 
not aim at effect. It stops in itself; is satisfied 



336 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

with doing its task, — making a sermon, and de- 
livering it, — but does not aim so to construct it, 
and point and push it home, as to make it felt by 
the hearer. It is not enough addressed to man as 
man ; has not enough of the lawyer-like method of 
arguing with a jury in order to get the case. It is 
too abstract, too artificial, too much in the style 
of an essay or dissertation ; stopping with the proof, 
but not applying what has been proved. This is 
like erecting a battery, loading the guns, and then 
spiking them lest they should do execution in the 
ranks of the enemy." 

Preaching, like dress, to some extent, is a matter 
of caprice and fashion. As to style and manner, it 
changes according to the ideas of some popular 
metropolitan, or the appetite of auditors who can 
relish little except spicy or witty lectures. What 
the amateurs at one time applaud, they will not 
tolerate, from disgust, at another. "It is feeble or 
perfunctory," they say; "it is old, and out of fash- 
ion." Some, more open, and perhaps more honest, 
admit that they dislike equally a good sermon and 
a poor one ; for they object alike to the basis of both. 
It is the evangelical doctrines and duties that offend 
them, and not feebleness or flippancy or false logic 
in preaching. 

The best answer to these epicures that the pulpit 
can bring, Dr. Hawes felt, is to insist most earnestly 
and discriminatingly on the great doctrines and 
duties of the gospel; to meet the scepticism and 
folly of men directly by that which is " the wisdom 
and the power of God." 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 337 

He deprecated only that clerical culture which 
removes the preacher from the masses. " The 
pulpit," he said, "must keep in advance of the 
pews in learning and intelligence, if it would hold 
its proper position as a guiding and moulding 
agency ; but it must also keep hold of them." He 
would not separate the subject-matter of preaching 
from natural science or philosophy, or even meta- 
physics, provided they are made to give support 
and prominence to the purely gospel-message. The 
sermon, he thought, as a general thing, should be 
more doctrinal, and at the same time more direct 
and practical; simpler in method, plainer, more 
elastic, and yet weightier with the solid substance 
of Bible-truth J more the very Word, and less upon 
or round about it. The reader of many books the 
preacher may be ; but he must be emphatically a 
man of faith in that one book, the Bible. He must 
know its truth and sovereignty by his own deep 
experience. Then the gospel would not come forth 
so timidly and sparingly from the pulpit to the 
pews, sometimes in such apologetic terms. Then 
preaching would become a deutero- divine revela- 
tion, and the preacher would carry with him the 
might of a living gospel. His glory is ever in 
"being himself nothing, and in making Christ every 
thing ; " or, as Tholuck expresses it, having " but 
one passion, and that He, and He alone." 

The success of Dr. Hawes as a preacher is the 
best practical commendation of his views and prin- 
ciples of preaching. It is reported, that, shortly 
after the Unitarian worship was commenced in their 



338 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

elegant church in Hartford, a member of the new 
society, meeting one of Dr. Hawes's parishioners, 
said, a little boastingly, " We have in our church 
a mahogany pulpit, and you only a pine one in 
yours." — "Yes," was the response; "lout our pine 
pulpit don't harm our mahogany preacher, and your 
mahogany one don't help your pine preacher." 

A sermon that Dr. Hawes preached on Univer- 
salism was published, and a copy sent to his old 
master,- who was of that persuasion. A neighbor 
asked him what he thought of it. " Oh !" he said, 
" it is Joel all over. It made no difference with 
him whether he got hold of a fine cloth or a coarse 
one : it. was go ahead." 

His dislike for any thing that looked like mere 
sensational preaching was very strong. " One Mon- 
day morning I met him," said a brother-minister; 
" and, having learned that he had help from New 
York the clay before, I adverted to it. 

" He quickly replied, c There are a great many 
ways of going to hell, and flashy preaching is one 
of them.' " 

His love for preaching, which was a passion, con- 
tinued to the last. An old parishioner met him 
one Monday morning returning from his Sabbath 
labors, as he had done several successive Mondays. 
" I stopped him," he says, " and addressed to him 
this question : ' Doctor, do you continue to preach 
every Sunday ? ' Straightening himself up to his 
full height, his eye glowing with the enthusiasm of 
his younger days, and with a voice of cheerful ear- 
nestness, he said, 6 To be sure I do : why should I be 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 339 

laid up on the shelf? ' I asked him if he loved to 
preach then as well as at any former period. ' Cer- 
tainly I do/ was the answer." And he continued to 
preach up to within the last four days of his life. 

The wide range which Dr. Hawes took as a 
preacher presents him in the light of a philan- 
thropist. He felt a deep interest in all forms of 
Christian missions ; for he believed in the gospel as 
the world's only effective civilizer as well as regen- 
erator. He saw in the missionary aspects of the age 
the brightest prospect and promise for the nations ; 
and though, in his later years, he was sometimes 
a little desponding, he had no doubt of the final 
triumph of gospel truth and peace. He was con- 
nected with almost all the national charitable organ- 
izations as a director or co-laborer. " The Jubilee 
Memorial " — a sermon delivered at Hartford, in 
1860, on the fiftieth anniversary of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions — was 
full of just and comprehensive views and of heroic 
Christian enthusiasm on the work of the world's 
conversion. 

" It is the cause of God," he said. " It is em- 
braced in his eternal counsels. It rests on his un- 
failing word of promise. And the ultimate triumph 
of the gospel is secured by the fact, that God has 
all instrumentalities in his hand, and is able with in- 
finite ease to sweep away all obstacles to its progress. 
The work may meet with local and temporary 
checks ; particular missions may for a time fail 
of success, and be abandoned • false friends may 



340 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

desert the cause, and its true friends may sometimes 
be ready to faint because of the greatness of the 
work and the mighty obstacles which lie in the^way 
of its success : still, I repeat, the cause of missions 
will go forward. It has gone forward mightily in 
our day ; and all signs indicate that the next half- 
century will witness such things in its progress as 
will far surpass all that has yet been experienced. 
This cause is safe, — a spiritual cause carried on in 
the hearts of men by God's invisible, almighty 
power. Its elements are truth and love ; its seat 
of action is the soul of man ; its fruit is peace, joy, 
hope, present and everlasting happiness. This cause 
is safe, and it is the only cause in our world which 
is safe ; and happy, thrice happy, are they who are 
truly interested in it, and are seeking by their 
prayers and charities to hasten the day of its final 
triumph." 

Dr. Hawes believed Christianity to be a rule, not 
only for private, but also for public life. He claimed 
for it jurisdiction in political and social as well as 
ecclesiastical relations. He regarded it as not only 
the higher law, but the highest ; and the more public 
men and politicians set it aside, and placed their feet 
upon it, the more strenuously did he insist on its 
elevation and sovereignty. 

He believed in political as well as religious prog- 
ress, but did not count going backward to old here- 
sies and barbarisms as progress. He had a quick 
sense of the wrongs of his fellow-men, and wished 
to right them at once. In theory he was a radical 
reformer and an immediatist ; but his practical sa- 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 341 

gacity brought in the questions of time and means, 
and led him to root out wrongs and secure rights 
as speedily as possible without violating right or 
incurring guilt. 

He was a conservative also, and by the same prin- 
ciples that made him a reformer ; namely, a regard 
for equity, and a hatred of those ruthless demoli- 
tions, sometimes called reforms, in which the good 
is dealt with more hardly than the evil. 

Dr. Hawes was early interested in the Temperance 
movement. He began by clipping off the fruit and 
twigs of the evil tree ; but when he found that the 
tree was evil, and went on bearing more and more 
fruit for the clipping, he laid the axe at its root. 
u Down it must come," he said, " or we all labor in 
vain." When he perceived that intoxicating liquor 
to men in health did no good, but only harm \ when 
he saw that all drunkards were once what were 
called moderate drinkers, — he felt, that, for such 
men, what was considered the moderate use was 
immoderate, and that the first glass was just one 
glass too much. Then he saw that he had been 
" trusting to half-measures," which " in any good 
cause," he said, " I abhor." 

He discerned also the enemy that lurks in the 
common use of tobacco ; and he fought it valiantly, 
and to the last, — " an enemy," he said, "that is 
doing more to weaken the Church, and mar its 
beauty, than ardent spirits, because its use is so 
much more fashionable, and more common among 
the clergy and laity." 



342 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

Many will remember his celebrated tobacco ser- 
mon, preached in 1861, — " Tobacco the Bane of 
the Times/' — and some with gratitude and love ; 
though to many others it was as pearls cast before 
swine. One of this latter class accosted him in the 
street a few days after it was preached : " Well, 
doctor, I am afraid your sermon didn't do much 
good : I went home from church, and smoked my 
cigar as usual." — " Oh ! " was the quick, sharp 
retort, " I didn't preach it for you old, inveterate 
smokers ; I don't expect to do you any good : I 
preached it for the rising generation." — "Well," 
was the more honest confession which this answer 
elicited, " it is a good sermon. I have smoked up 
money enough to buy the best farm in Connecticut, 
and stock it well too." 

In answer to one who told him, that, in his statis- 
tics, he did not make his figures large enough, he 
replied, " Well, well ! I got them as large as I could, 
and have anybody believe me." As Aquinas was 
known among the schoolmen as the " Angelic 
Doctor," so Dr. Hawes acquired among the hack- 
drivers of Hartford the honorable appellation of 
the " anti-tobacco doctor." " Their respect for him 
is such," said one of them, " that, when they see 
him coming, they will throw away their cigars. 
Sometimes," he added, " when he heard them utter 
an oath, he would say, c My young friend, did you 
have a mother to bring you up ? Do you know 
where you are going ? ' " 

Dr. Hawes was one of the pioneers in the war 
against American slavery. He hoped for a time, as 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 343 

did many others, that colonization might gradually 
remove the evil : but, when he found that this was a 
favorite scheme of the slaveholders for getting rid of 
the troublesome free blacks, he doubted ; and, when 
he had looked it through, he felt, that, whatever gain 
it migdit bring; to Africa and the colonists, as a reme- 
cly for slavery it was as vain as the attempt to 
empty the Atlantic Ocean with buckets into the 
Pacific. 

Then emancipation or perpetual slavery was the 
alternative. He did not hesitate. He saw that 
slavery as a system, or the gospel, must be essential- 
ly wrong, so entire was the conflict between them ; 
that Anglo-Saxon freedom is only a glittering gen- 
erality, or African freedom must be an inalienable 
right. While, therefore, ethically and Christianly, 
immediate emancipation was the only safe doctrine 
respecting such a gigantic evil and wrong, practically 
nothing was to be expected but gradual emancipation, 
or its sudden extinction, from the outbursts of re- 
tributive justice in insurrection or rebellion. 

And, when the latter hung menacingly over the 
nation like a black cloud, Dr. Hawes was neither in- 
timidated nor much surprised. He was not a politi- 
cal preacher ; but he loved liberty and loyalty, and 
stood unflinchingly by the national flag, and against 
treason and rebellion, in the pulpit and out of it. 
He could not bear the idea that any branch of the 
Christian Church should boast of its special mission 
in this nineteenth Christian century to conserve 
African slavery in the heart of free America ; that 
any religious institution should allow itself to be 



344 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

held ; even tacitly, as its apologist ; that one -half of 
our free republic should be perverted into a confed- 
eracy whose chief corner-stone is slavery. It made 
him indignant to hear the cardinal principles of our 
Declaration of Independence bantered at the hust- 
ings by Northern statesmen as only shining shams, 
and the framers of our Constitution hissed from the 
stage by Southern secessionists as a mere fancy 
politicians." 

Of his various utterances upon this subject, the 
discourse " On the Duties of the Present Crisis," de- 
livered at the National Fast, Jan. 4, 1861, is, perhaps, 
the most characteristic and explicit. In respect to 
the occasion of the war, he says, — 

" As for the complaints they make of the North 
having wrested from them their rights, and oppressed 
and wronged them by legislative enactments and 
unauthorized claims, it is all moonshine, — nothing 
else 5 no substance, no truth, in it." 

Describing the peace and prosperity of our nation 
as a vine which had spread its branches, and under 
whose shadow the people had been invigorated and 
refreshed by its fruit, — 

" What," he asks, " do we see now ? Why, an up- 
rising of violent and fanatical men in a portion of 
our country, determined to uproot this vine, and 
scatter its branches to the winds. Shall this be 
done ? I trust not. It is a treason to be restrained ; 
to be restrained, if it can be, by wise counsels and 
conciliatory measures ; otherwise by the strong hand 
of power and the sword of justice." 

Among the duties of the crisis, this one was 
prominent : — 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 345 

" To stand firmly by the Constitution; to maintain 
it inviolate, and to secure the enforcement of the 
laws at all hazards. The men who formed the Con- 
stitution were wise men, of large views, and of noble, 
disinterested patriotism ; and though what they did 
was not, in all its parts, the best conceivable, it was 
the best they could do in then circumstances. They 
felt compelled to admit the gangrene of slavery- 
compromise into the Constitution, or have none. 

" Hitherto it has, on the whole, worked well ; and 
if its principles are strictly adhered to, and faithfully 
carried out in the administration of the government, 
there is no reason to fear that it will not work well 
in time to come, securing the rights of all the States, 
and opposing none. I say, then, Let the Constitution 
stand, and be maintained by all the power of the 
nation ; and if any rise up to destroy, or trample it 
under foot, let them be treated as guilty of treason 
and rebellion." 

From the outset, Dr. Hawes was full of hope ; but 
he had one great fear : — 

" More compromises, more concessions to slavery, 
as the condition of remaining in the Union, — this 
is, and this will be, for we know not how long, the 
cry of the South. And it would not be strange if 
the cry should be so loud and so alarming in the ears 
of many nerveless and boneless souls here at the 
North, that a party should be formed to favor the 
wicked demand, and help carry it into effect. Here 
is our danger. Here I have more fear than from 
any other quarter. Moral principle is gauged, by 
many, according to the price of stocks and the profits 



o 



46 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 



of trade. Any thing for Mammon and self; noth- 
ing for God and right. Well, let them try it if they 
will ; but it is an evil policy, and will soon recoil with 
a terribly-increased power of disaster and ruin. No : 
if the crisis must be met, let it be met now. If the 
demand is pressed, that we open the Constitution, 
and receive slavery to be nursed in its bosom and 
spread over the land, let there be from the party 
now coming into power, and from all good men and 
true through the land, one loud, united thunder-tone, 
No ! this can not, this shall not, be ! " 

The animating principle that stirred this grand 
old man to these brave words was simple equity; 
right, — eternal, immutable right : — 

" More room for the expansion of this institution, 
more territory for its growth, more concession to its 
demands, — these are the points in debate : and too 
many seem ready to settle them by mere bargaining ; 
asking, c How much shall we give you, and you be 
satisfied to let the Union stand ? ' How important, 
then, that we all fall back on first principles, and be 
resolved at all hazards to stand by the right ! Let 
us enthrone right in our own hosoms, and ever yield 
an unhesitating obedience to its dictates, whatever 
inconvenience or loss it may at present seem to cost 
us. That will ever be found best for us in the end. 

u Let us hear their complaints, and candidly con- 
sider them; and if, in any respect, we have given just 
cause for them, let us hasten to make full amends, 
and to show them that we ask nothing but right 
from them, and mean to do nothing but right to 
them. Here let us* stop, and go not one inch in con- 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 347 

cession to injustice and wrong, or yield one iota on 
the score of mere threat or bravado. 

" South Carolina has put herself out of the Union : 
but the firm earth still remains beneath us ; the sun 
still shines over us ; the rivers still flow ; and all the 
means of subsistence and happiness remain to us. 
And so it would be if the noise and bluster that are 
now so loud and threatening should work out their 
worst results, and consummate their most wicked 
devices. However wide and disastrous the ruin for 
a time, out of the whole, we rest assured, will rise a 
better order of things, more equal, more just, more 
free, more in accordance with the eternal principles 
of right, and therefore more stable, more abiding, 
and more conducive to the honor of God, the happi- 
ness of man, and all the great interests of society 
and civil government.' ' 

These words, in the light of accomplished results, 
seem like inspiration, and show the Hartford pastor 
to be the prophet as well as the bold apostle of 
liberty. The mount of these visions was the stabili- 
ty of God's moral and providential government. It 
was on this that the prophet stood when he saw so 
clearly the folly and weakness of oppression and 
wrong in their struggles for power, and when he 
drank in the spirit of that " loud, united thunder- 
tone, No ! " to all compromises with frauds, tyrannies, 
and treasons. 

And when Dr. Hawes was called to separate from 
a society which he loved, and from men in the action 
of that society whom he highly esteemed, it was on 
this same principle of right, eternal right, before ex- 



348 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

pediency. He investigated carefully ; he hesitated 
till the time for action came ; then he proceeded 
kindly, charitably, but boldly. 

u There was I/' he says, " the president of a new 
and independent society, with some of the members 
of my church whom I most esteem opposed to me, 
because they thought, conscientiously, I was wrong, 
while I as conscientiously believed I was right. The 
only difference between us, I think, was, that they 
were afraid to be right, while I was equally afraid to 
be wrong. But, however this may be, there is noth- 
ing I feel so strongly on as this : It is not right to 
garble God's Word, to deny his injunctions, to impeach 
his moralnvy; it is not proper, manly, Christian. It 
is well to be judicious, generous, charitable ; but it 
is not duty to crouch, cringe, or bend, when the 
slave-driver cracks his whip so nimbly : it should not 
be done." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Dr. Hawes as a Pastor. — Interest in Young People. — Fondness for 

Children. 



IT is seldom that one who is so good a preacher 
excels also in the pastoral work ; so rare is the 
combination of qualities that gives success in both 
relations. Much, however, that is accessory to the 
best power of the pulpit, is secured by fidelity and 
skill in parochial visits. Such visits lend what 
may be called a personalness to preaching, and a 
directness, which constitute one of the charms of 
pulpit-eloquence, and a means of its most attractive 
influence. Through the social affections, they open 
avenues for God's messages of love to hearts that 
otherwise might remain forever closed ; for sympa- 
thy secured in the parish becomes a kind of magnet- 
ism in the pulpit. 

Dr. Hawes possessed just that dignity which made 
success in the pastoral office natural and easy. A 
little over six feet in height, and always erect, there 
was in his bearing an air of quiet command without 
lordliness : it was the effect of his intelligence, be- 
nevolence, and conspicuous honesty, which, in their 
elevating power, are intrinsically imperial. He im- 

349 



350 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

pressed a stranger as a man of intellectual rather 
than physical force ; though it was evident that the 
physical had at one time predominated. He walked 
about in his parish in the conceded eminence of a 
successful Christian teacher, a watchful shepherd, — 
now protecting and defending, now leading and 
feeding, the flock. 

Without demanding or even seeking it, there was 
rendered to him the " double honor " due to those 
elders who " rule well." Some, especially among 
the young, experienced a feeling of awe in his pres- 
ence, that kept them for a while at a distance ; but 
nearness, and the smile of his light blue eye, dis- 
pelled the fear, and drew to him the timidest of the 
lambs. 

Age and experience placed him at length in a 
kind of patriarchate. To some of his younger 
brethren, Dr. Hawes, in this leadership, seemed at 
times a little despotic. If, in his success, he did 
indeed become so, it only shows that he had not then 
attained the goal in the race he was running. It is 
true, he was strongly attached to his opinions, — 
as most men are whose opinions are worth holding, 
and who are themselves worth much to society, — 
not because they were his, but because he had 
adopted them after careful examination, and believed 
them to be correct. And, if he seemed sometimes 
obstinate, it was, in part, because he undoubtedly was 
so, and partly, perhaps, because they also were to 
whom he appeared obstinate ; but as age matured, 
and affliction mellowed him, as he advanced towards 
the state of loving all and forgiving always, the 



LIFE OF DR. II A WES. 351 

appearance of this passed entirely away. In the 
ministerial meetings, he took delight in sitting at 
the feet of his juniors \ and was quick to hear, and 
rather slow to speak. Eespecting one of them 
many years younger than himself, he playfully said, 
" I wish I had half the knowledge in my head that 
I have seen in his hat." 

Indeed, he seems never to have been conscious 
of any such feeling as that ascribed to him, or aware 
of such an impression among his brethren. When 
told, that, on this account, some of them were less 
free and confiding than he desired, "he was over- 
whelmed," says one, "with astonishment and grief; 
and, could those young ministers have known his 
whole heart, they would have cast away as unjust all 
their suspicions, and embraced as an acknowledged 
father the man who in his feelings really was, and 
wanted to seem to be, their father indeed." 

Writes a young brother, " My attachment to Dr. 
Hawes became stronger, the more I knew him. He 
was a true friend and father, wise in counsels, kind 
in all his intercourse, and honest in whatever he did 
or said, — a man to be thoroughly confided in. And 
I always wondered that some of the young clergy- 
men did not love and appreciate him more : it was 
because they did not know him well." 

"I shall never forget," says another, "the warm 
greeting which he brought in his first call upon my 
family after our arrival in Hartford. His expres- 
sions of cordial interest, of mingled sympathy and 
encouragement, and of good advice, are still grate- 
ful to me. An incident connected with that call 



352 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

opened not a little of his great, sad heart. To his 
inquiry in regard to my household accommodations, 
I had answered, complaining of the annoyance I ex- 
perienced from having my study so near the nursery, 
I was seriously disturbed by the noise and laughter 
of the children. c Ah ! ' said the old doctor, — and 
his voice broke under the emotion which the ten- 
derest of memories awakened, — c ah ! my dear 
young brother, may their noise and laughter never 
die out of your household ! ' What a sorrowful page 
in his life was then turned towards me ! " 

Dr. Hawes possessed that intellectual independ- 
ence which the pastoral office demands. He was 
a diligent student of the works of learned men, and 
was always ready to hear counsel ; but he called 
no man master. He deferred easily to legitimate 
authority, whether divine or human ; but it was on 
grounds that so commanded the assent of his reason 
and moral sense, that it left him free in the use of 
human opinions without being hampered by them. 

" I am willing to be advised," he said in regard 
to a somewhat meddling parishioner ; " but advice 
I regard only as knowledge. I must act for myself. 
To God I am accountable. I do his work; and 
nothing must divert or deter me from it." This 
was a just idea of pastoral independence, and a wise 
use of advice. 

Early in his ministerial work, he wrote, " I find 
more and more, every clay I live, that I must stand 
on my own feet. If I attempt to please all, I shall 
please none." But he felt it important that his 
parishioners should stand on their feet also. " None 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 353 

are here accustomed/' he said, " to assume the 
right to dictate or govern without the consent of 
others, or to carry measures by means that will not 
commend themselves to calm consideration and 
sound judgment; and, when the majority have 
decided a case, the minority are accustomed peace- 
ably to acquiesce." 

He was a sagacious and patient administrator of 
church-discipline ; relying more for success on the 
corrective influence of instruction and love than on 
the exscinding power of the Church. The results 
of forty years' labor, as indicated in filed papers, 
disclose a spirit and policy in seeking the purity 
of the Church as remote from indifference as from 
rashness. Nothing, in his view, was so suited to re- 
claim the wayward, and restore the fallen, — neither 
pope nor bishop nor session, — as the simple canon 
of the one only Lawgiver in the eighteenth chapter 
of Matthew. 

He exercised the same carefulness in receiving as 
in excluding members. He took great pains with 
candidates in preliminary instruction, and was very 
thorough in their examination. "■ Long observation 
has convinced me," he says, " that it is a great and 
hurtful mistake to hurry young converts into the 
Church. Let them be trained for this solemn trans- 
action before they enter into it." 

The stated public services of Dr. Hawes were two 
sermons on the Sabbath, a lecture or prayer-meet- 
ing in the evening, and a lecture during the week. 
This course he pursued so long as he was the sole 



354 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

pastor of the church ; and, when it was proposed to 
put the Sabbath school in place of the afternoon 
sermon, he was fearful of the results. " The plan 
is good enough in theory/' he said ; " but it won't 
work. The school can't be materially increased by 
dispensing with one sermon ; and those not already 
connected with it, who have been accustomed to 
afternoon preaching, will either go elsewhere, or 
nowhere." 

" His prodigious labors," says one long a parish- 
ioner, " are a sufficient proof that he had naturally 
an iron constitution. He seldom exchanged on the 
Sabbath • nor did he very frequently preach old ser- 
mons, even in the later years of his life. His vaca- 
tions were brief, — seldom more than two weeks ; and 
frequently he took none. He used to say, ' I carry 
my parish with me to Saratoga ; ' and this feeling of 
responsibility hurried him back, sometimes, much 
against the wishes of his people, who felt that he 
needed more rest." 

Some ministers devote very little time to visiting; 
but Dr. Hawes regarded this as an essential part of 
his office, and indispensable to success in it. He was 
a genuine tnfoxoaog, — a bishop in the true New-Tes- 
tament sense. The annual reports which he was 
accustomed to make to the church show it to have 
been his plan to visit, each year, all the families in 
the parish, — from three to four hundred. In addi- 
tion, the sick and the afflicted shared his attentions 
as their circumstances required. He was eminently 
successful in this department of labor. He never 
forgot that he was a minister, but always remem- 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 355 

bered that he was a man, and the friend of hi? people. 
His main object was never lost sight of, though not 
forced into notice ; and all of respect and affection 
that he gained in visiting he made use of as pulpit- 
power in preaching. He had seasons of special visi- 
tation, of from one to three weeks ; and some of the 
most precious revivals during his ministry followed 
these seasons. 

Dr. Emmons seldom visited even his church-mem- 
bers, except when they were sick ; nor then, ordina- 
rily, unless they sent for him. Dr. Hawes, in one of 
his annual reports, says, " I am always ready to go 
when sent for, and thankful to be reminded of any 
visit which I ought to make ; " and he never waited 
for a call when he knew where he was needed. His 
people, in sickness, affliction, or trouble of any kind, 
welcomed his visits. Many of the aged were loath 
to die without them. " I want to see Dr. Hawes," 
" I must see Dr. Hawes," was often heard in the sick- 
rooms of his parishioners. He was once informed 
of an aged, godly woman, who had expressed this 
wish ; and, not being able to see her, he replied, as 
his eye kindled, " Tell her she has a free pass to 
heaven, which does not need my indorsement." 

How these ministries came to be so highly prized 
and eagerly sought is explained by what one writes 
who knew him intimately, though not of his flock : — 

" At a time of great weakness and spiritual dark- 
ness through sore bereavements, I sent for Dr. Hawes, 
feeling that he had known affliction, and could give me 
counsel, and possibly lead me into the light. With 
characteristic promptness and kindness he came. I 



356 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

complained of my want of acquiescence in the will 
of my heavenly Father, until the question had arisen, 
6 Am I his f Could a true believer be thus dark and 
unsubmissive ? ' With one of those eloquent expres- 
sions of his earnest face beyond what his lips could 
utter, beaming with a fulness of joy in ih^ fulness of 
Christ, he turned to me, and replied, ' My child, you 
are wrong ; you are all wrong : you have nothing to 
do with yourself. Here is your text : " Fear thou not ; 
for I am with thee : be not dismayed ; for I am thy 
Gocl ; I will strengthen thee ; yea, I will help thee ; 
yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my 
righteousness; " ' enlarging upon the theme in a most 
affectionate and impressive manner. He followed 
his counsels by a fervent appeal to the gracious Lord 
on my behalf : and he did not leave me till in comfort 
and calmness I was able to say, ' Thou art my God ; ' 
( What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee.' The 
fragrance of this precious hour with the good man is 
ever with me, a cherished memory; for which I give 
thanks to Gocl, by whose grace or in whose name 
he came." 

The social nature of Dr. Hawes was, to some, veiled 
by a little apparent coldness ; but the genuine 
warmth of his truly Christian affections, especially 
among his own people, removed the veil, and gave 
a charm to all his social and ministerial intercourse. 
It showed itself in a tenderness of feeling at the 
communion-table when distributing the emblems of 
the Master's love, and in his cautionary earnestness in 
the preparatory lectures. It came forth in his gentle, 
angel-like ministries at the bedside of the sick, and 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 357 

in his soulful words of sympathy with the suffering 
and afflicted. If there was a little too much iron in 
his will (the shadow of what might have been a real 
despotism but for God's subduing grace), there was 
no iciness in his heart. In the social circle, the stiff- 
ness which was natural to him vanished in the free 
outflow of his affectionate nature, in the warm grasp 
of the. hand, in the humorous twinkle of his mild 
blue eye, and his broad, whole-hearted laugh. He 
had good conversational powers ; yet he could not 
talk as many can, unless he had something to say. 
He was quick at repartee, and indulged in graceful 
pleasantries, though he never descended to levity. 
As a consequence, he was never a dread where he 
was known, even to the youngest, because he was 
never dull. He studied to be instructive, and also 
entertaining ; and this made him always a welcome 
guest in the homes of his people and friends. 

" Shall we ever forget the delightful interviews we 
have enjoyed with him in his familiar visits at our 
houses," writes one who has an exquisite appreciation 
of this social element, " the unaffected interest he 
always manifested in the welfare of our families, the 
almost Saviour-like manner in which he gathered the 
children around him, c the gracious words that pro- 
ceeded out of his mouth/ the affecting benedictions 
which he pronounced as he rose to depart ? The 
room wherein we received him always seemed sunnier 
after his visits ; the atmosphere seemed changed. 
He had come and gone ; and, lo ! we were blessed. 

" Some subtle effluence of the good man's essen- 
tial beauty and loveliness and holiness of character 



358 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

seemed to linger behind him ; and as flowers diffuse 
their perfumes, so the sweet odors of his simplicity 
and gentleness and kindness and goodness filled the 
places wherein he tarried but for an hour." 

He was deeply interested in young men, and, 
through his genial nature, had great success in win- 
ning their confidence and moulding their character. 

Some who came young into the church labored 
under certain disadvantages in respect to active par- 
ticipation in social meetings, partly because there 
were so many educated and strong men in the 
church, — governors, judges, and lawyers, — partly 
because Dr. Hawes's instinctive love of labor led 
him often to occupy a good deal of time in the 
social meetings when he meant to say but little, 
and partly on account of a paternal fear lest be- 
ginners should not speak appropriately before they 
had had any experience. And when one rose to 
pray or speak, " Turn round, John," or " William, 
speak louder," would sometimes greet the timid ad- 
venturer : then, " That will do on that point ; pass 
to another." 

To the faint-hearted or the self-conceited, this 
minuteness of training might interpose an uncom- 
fortable check; while, though a trial to modesty 
and true grace, they might, notwithstanding, grow 
brighter and stronger for it. 

He took great delight in cultivated female society, 
and did much to promote education and true refine- 
ment among the young women of his parish and the 
city. The Hartford Female Seminary was for many 
years as a child, and owes to him very much of its 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 359 

character and usefulness. It was his custom for a 
long time to open the school on Monday morning 
by prayer and a few words of familiar instruction 
and counsel. He rejoiced in all the solid attain- 
ments made by the pupils ; he loved to be sur- 
rounded by the bright, inquiring faces of those 
whom he would stimulate to every thing that is 
pure and good ; and they had an equal pleasure in 
gathering about him as he came into their circles, 
and in responding to his cheerful questionings. 

Placing his hand affectionately on the head of a 
young lady whose father was a doctor of divinity, 
and whose grandfather had attained distinction in 
both Church and State, he said, " My daughter, you 
have much good blood in your veins : remember this, 
and be careful not to spoil it." 

Dr. Hawes hailed with great satisfaction the intro- 
duction of physical training into female schools and 
academies, though he did not favor promiscuous 
dancing-parties in them ; and he witnessed with 
delight the graceful movements of the new gymnas- 
tics, single and in groups, and the glow of health, 
and the harmonious development of the physical 
with the mental and moral powers which was the 
result. Some years before the introduction of these 
exercises, Dr. Hawes, in a lecture " On the Forma- 
tion and Excellence of Female Character," advanced 
the following hygienic and aesthetic principles : — 

" If mothers would see their daughters adorned 
with the character of the virtuous woman, they must 
learn to train them with a rigid reference to the laws 
of health ; and our daughters must learn the essen- 



360 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

tial conditions on which health depends, and care- 
fully conform to them. They must learn, that if 
they would have a sound mind in a sound body, 
cheerful spirits with beautiful forms and blooming 
countenances, they must cease to worship at the 
shrine of the goddess of fashion, and follow the pre- 
cepts of reason and common sense ; must breathe 
pure air, take free exercise, and never be afraid to 
bear a part in the work of the kitchen and the 
common affairs of the family. They must learn, in 
a word, in the whole course of their training, both 
at home and in the school, to mingle labor with 
study, and never fall into the absurd notion, that, in 
order to be delicate, they must be indolent, or that, 
in order to be fine ladies, they must form themselves 
into those inefficient, fainting, nervous things that 
often pass under that name." 

He had a remarkable fondness for children, and 
also a kind of fascination for them, which was in- 
creased rather than diminished by age. He loved 
to address them in the Sabbath school. He took 
particular notice of them when he met them in the 
street ; and was careful to remember their names, 
and drop some kind word. He used to charge them 
" to take hold of him, and pull him down" if he over- 
looked them in passing ; and the good man sometimes 
found the little things actually pulling at his coat- 
tail, and calling, " Dr. Hawes, Dr. Hawes ! " 

This skill in leading and feeding the lambs is a 
rare excellence. " Whenever Dr. Hopkins met me 
in my childhood," said one of his parishioners, " he 



LIFE OF DR. II AWES. 361 

inquired for my name and the name of my father, 
yet never seemed to notice my answer so as to re- 
member it, but appeared to be lost in divinity." 

" When I was a boy," writes one respecting Dr. 
Hawes, " I well recollect how dreadful was my fear 
and awe of him. His immense form, his massive 
face, his heavy, overhanging eyebrows, all seemed 
to me to indicate a terrible man, and one from whom 
all mortal boys should at once flee away. I was 
playing in Grove Street one day, near his house, 
when he came by. Without seeming to be so dis- 
respectful as to run away from him, yet with the 
intention of getting out of the reach of his arms, 
I made pretty good time for the other side of the 
street. To my dismay he recognized me, and called, 
at the same time beckoning to me with those fear- 
ful hands. I dared not disobey ; and so I crossed 
over. But how delightful was my surprise, when, 
instead of annihilating me, or even preaching to me, 
as I feared he would, he greeted me with a sweet 
smile, put his hand gently on my head, and asked 
me some questions about my play and about my 
school. He then asked me if I studied Latin • and, 
when I replied that I did, he asked me to translate 
for him this sentence : Nulla dies sine lined. I 
replied that the literal translation was, ' No day 
without a line.' — ' Very good/ said he : c that means, 
" Let there be no day without something done ; no 
day without progress in something good." Let that 
be your motto, and think of it often : Nulla dies sine 
lined. Now go and play again.' I ran off to the 
other boys, thoroughly convinced that Dr. Hawes 



362 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

was the most splendid man that ever lived. I never 
forgot that lesson. 

" Years after, my wife was walking one day with 
our little daughter, a bright child of about four 
years old, when they met Dr. Hawes. He took 
up the child in his arms, fondly caressed her, and 
quite charmed her with his playfulness, and at part- 
ing gave her a little picture-book. She had many 
much prettier and more expensive ones at home : 
but this was the most loved of all ; for, as she said, 
i D otter Hawes gave it to me.' After that, she 
used to ask to go out to walk, and c praps we sail 
meet Dotter Hawes; and I like Dotter Hawes.' She 
never forgot her good, kind friend ; and I, remem- 
bering the incident of my boyhood, did not wonder 
at her affection for him." 

One who was a parishioner more than thirty 
years says, " His likeness hangs before me while I 
write ; but it is Dr. Hawes silent and alone. I 
should prefer, above all others, a picture represent- 
ing him just as he appeared in the family, on a 
pastoral visit, with parents and children gathered 
about him ; the little lambs of the flock sitting on 
his knees, familiarly playing with his watch-chain 
and cane, while they joyfully received his gentle 
caresses, and listened with delight to his words of 
loving-kindness. It was here, and on such occa- 
sions, when he entered with all his heart into the 
interests of the family, that the most charming traits 
of his character found their freest and most delight- 
ful exercise. What made the children love Dr. 
Hawes so much was because his great heart was 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 363 

full of love for them. They no sooner came under 
the influence of his fascinating smile and loving 
words than their unerring instincts told them how 
much he loved them ; and then they at once gave 
him their hands and their hearts, and ever after 
remained the best of friends. 

" When our first-born was about four years old, 
we took him with us to church one Sunday morn- 
ing, where he saw and heard Dr. Hawes for the first 
time in the pulpit. In the afternoon his mother 
discovered him in the parlor, standing on a sofa for 
his platform, with a desk in front of him, which he 
had constructed with chairs and ottomans, on which 
lay the open Bible and hymn-book. There he 
stood, earnestly, gesticulating with his little hands, 
striving to imitate the preaching of the morning, 
and at the same time repeating the words, c Be 
good, be good ! ' which was the whole of the child's 
sermon. When the pastor called, not long after, the 
mother told him how her little boy had attempted 
to imitate his preaching. Taking the little fellow 
on his knee, and placing his hand gently upon his 
head, he said, c My dear boy, that was a good sermon 
you preached. "Be good:" why, that embraces 
our whole duty from the cradle to the grave. Prac- 
tise as you have preached, and it will be well with 
you here and hereafter.' " 

" On going into the parlor one day," writes a 
mother, " I saw the doctor with Willie, a little 
three-years-old, on his knee, both apparently much 
delighted. Willie was a frank and winsome child, 
and occupied most of the doctor's attentions during 



364 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

his visit, and, on the latter's leaving, followed him to 
the door, begging him, 6 Come again soon.' — ' I 
will, I will, my child ; ' and, two days after, the 
doctor called again to see Willie." 

"I can recall," says another, "the tenderness of 
his salutation to me, a child, when we met on the 
street ; the occasional putting of his hand on my 
head or shoulder, and saying, 6 My daughter, is 
it well with you ? ' and the flood of emotion that 
filled my heart as he passed on ; for well I knew 
what his grave, tender question meant. . . . The 
power of his affectionate manner gave him the in- 
fluence over me which was needed in deciding the 
great question of life." 

Fifteen years ago/a very careful observer of men 
and ministers wrote, " No man in New England 
has produced a more profound impression upon a 
community — an impression which is felt in all 
classes of society — than Dr. Hawes. His life has 
been devoted to the good of his people ; and, when 
I say life, I mean not only his time, but his heart, 
his affections, his entire being. Even the irreligious 
and the sceptic acknowledge this : all reverence and 
respect the man." J 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Dr. Hawes as a Man. — Natural Endowments. — Simple Habits. - 
Economy and Benevolence. — Geniality and Goodness. — Summary. 



THERE are some men who have so little natural 
manhood, so little capacity of any thing noble, 
that it is impossible for them to become great, or 
eminently useful in any calling. There is nothing 
to start from, nothing to build upon, and not much 
to build with. The Parthenon would have been a 
transient and much less impressive model of archi- 
tecture if it had been built of wood, and reared in 
a bog of the muddy Tiber, where the Pantheon 
stands ; and the Pantheon a far more imposing one 
had it been erected on the Acropolis at Athens. 

Dr. Hawes possessed native elements, that were 
both foundation and building-material of the man 
" great Nature made him," before God made him 
a minister. There was nothing negative, nothing 
neutral or apathetic, about him as a boy. His old 
master's description was characteristic and graphic : 
" Whether he got hold of a fine cloth or coarse, it 
made no difference : it was go ahead." He mastered 
all his tasks without difficulty, whether in manual 
labor or study. He was never staggered but once, 

365 



366 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

and then only for a day and a half, — by the first 
declension in his Latin grammar. 

He was endowed by nature with strong passions, 
an iron will, and great executive energy. These 
usually give eminence to a man, whatever becomes 
his vocation. Had he devoted himself to the study 
and practice of law or medicine, these qualities 
would have given him success, though not perhaps 
the same, which, in his consecration to Christ, he 
attained in the ministry. He was a marked young 
man fifty years ago, and a leader of his fellow- 
students in college and in the seminary. With the 
broader and richer culture in our institutions of to- 
day, his native powers, his persistent industry, and 
his love of learning with his earnest faith, would 
probably have placed him in the forefront with the 
most thoroughly drilled and cultivated young men 
who are now entering the ministry, and have given 
him, for forty years to come, a prominence in his 
work not a whit below that which he actually held 
at his prime. 

He was highly favored with a robust constitution ; 
and by regular habits in exercise and study, and 
by a simple regimen, he enjoyed a large measure 
of health, which was continued quite up to his last 
short sickness. " He ate sparingly," says an inmate 
of his household, u particularly at supper, and al- 
ways of simple but nutritious food." It was a rule 
which he early adopted, to leave off at each meal 
with a little appetite for the next. Dr. Emmons 
says, that, through life, he rose from his table with as 
good an appetite as he had when he sat down. Dr. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 367 

Hopkins breakfasted and supped on bread and milk 
from a bowl containing about three gills ; never al- 
lowing himself to exceed or fall short of just that 
quantity. 

Dr. Hawes was in the habit of retiring at nine 
o'clock, and rising at five. The first thing in the 
morning was his season of devotion. Many who 
have occupied that guest-chamber adjoining his 
study have heard the low tones of his pleading 
prayer before the sun was up, and in winter before 
the dawn. This was the key that opened for him 
the day and its duties. Next he went to the care 
of his faithful horse ; and afterwards, before break- 
fast, to his garden or woodhouse for exercise ; and 
thus he was prepared for his hours of study. 

He was a man of economy as well as fidelity. 
The carefulness in money-matters which he prac- 
tised in early life from necessity he continued after- 
wards from habit and from principle. He could 
not have accepted charitable aid, as he did in his 
preparation for the ministry, without at the same 
time practising the strictest self-denial compatible 
with health and the best condition for study ; and 
when settled, with a family to care for, he gauged 
his expenditures according to his salary, aiming 
at a little balance each year to be laid aside for 
future need. This economy saved him from the 
numberless perplexities to which not a few min- 
isters, from the want of it, have been subjected in 
the accumulation of new debts or the prolonged 
burden of old ones, in the humiliating necessity of 
asking for more salary, or of seeking or awaiting 



368 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

a call to some more affluent or generous congre- 
gation. 

Dr. Hawes never had occasion to request an in- 
crease of his stipend, or to suggest an extra allow- 
ance ; for the people, on their part, were duly 
considerate of their pastor in these matters. They 
were made partakers of his spiritual things ; and 
they ministered unto him wisely of their carnal 
things. Several times in an emergency, from sick- 
ness or other cause, the society voted an addition 
to his quarterly payments of from one to five hun- 
dred dollars. The original salary of twelve hundred 
was raised, in 1843, to fifteen hundred, and later to 
eighteen hundred. After three years, the expense 
of living having somewhat diminished, Dr. Hawes 
requested that it might be reduced to fifteen hun- 
dred dollars. From this it was afterwards advanced 
to two thousand. While the question of this in- 
crease was under consideration, a prominent mem- 
ber of the society said to his pastor, " I intend to 
have a vote passed at the next annual meeting to 
raise your salary to twentj-five hundred dollars, — 
the same that some of the other ministers of the city 
receive." — "No, brother, no," was the emphatic 
reply : " don't you do it. With economy, I can live 
on my present salary. I am opposed to it for two 
reasons. One, there are many clergymen in the 
country towns who receive only seven or eight hun- 
dred dollars, which is all their parishioners can pay ; 
yet these ministers work as hard and as earnestly as 
we do in the city. The other is, I never wish to 
see the salaries of the clergy raised in this country , 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES, 369 

so as to induce young men to go into the ministry 
for a living.'" He even suggested to his people the 
propriety of returning to fifteen hundred ; but he 
was overruled in this, and his salary was continued 
at two thousand to the close of his sole pastorate. 

This was a rare strife between a minister and his 
parish : but it shows, on the one hand, a people ap- 
preciative -and generous ; and, on the other, a pastor 
high above even the suspicion of an " itching palm," 
or any thing mean or mercenary. 

Dr. Hawes was by no means deficient in benevo- 
lence. Though he was not a large donor, yet he 
gave to the charitable objects of the day with more 
than ordinary liberality. " The Gift to Home Mis- 
sionaries " — a volume of his sermons published at 
his own expense, and sent to from eight to ten hun- 
dred laborers in the home field — was a charity 
worth far more than the money it cost, as is shown 
by letters which he received. 

He was deeply interested in the work of city 
evangelization. One of his latest efforts was to 
press forward an important movement in Hartford _ 
carried on by the City Missionary Board. He wished 
to secure the services of a preacher who should 
devote his whole time to missionary work in con- 
nection with the chapels established for the purpose ; 
and he proposed to support such a missionary him- 
self, if it was not done in any other way. 

The amount of Dr. Hawes's property at his 
decease was a little surprising to some ; but it need 
not have been. His prudence and economy explain 
it all. The little excess above his annual expendi- 



370 LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 

tures was, from the beginning, placed where it 
would be increasing. He never risked any thing in 
speculations or hazardous investments. He did not 
talk much about these matters, nor did he think 
much about them. As he had no greed of gain, so 
he had no carking care, or anxious fear of loss. 

But why did he allow such an accumulation, 
while so many charitable objects which he loved 
were calling for aid ? He met these calls as they 
came to him in a way that satisfied both his judg- 
ment and his conscience. But there was another 
object more specific that he deemed important, 
and which was very dear, — the Hartford Female 
Seminary. It was to him as a child. He was 
present at its birth, and may be said to have admin- 
istered to it infant-baptism. He had loved and 
cherished it in its childhood, and rejoiced greatly in 
its maturity and prosperity ; and he loved it the 
more, because, like all his children, it was born in 
Hartford, where he hoped it would live, and be 
useful, long after he had passed away. 

It was to this that he was looking, and for this 
felt that he must provide. In his will, made in 1860, 
after bequeathing to Mrs. Hawes half of his prop- 
erty and the use of the house during her life, and 
a thousand dollars, afterwards increased to fifteen 
hundred, the interest of which was to be divided 
between the American Board and the American 
Home Missionary Society, with some other bequests, 
he devised, on a single condition, the residue of his 
estate, including that the use of which was given 
to his wife, as a permanent fund to this institution. 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 371 

Should the condition fail, the will provides that the 
interest of the money thus designated be paid over 
annually, in equal parts, to said American Board and 
Home Missionary Society. 

In a final codicil, made during his last sickness, 
he annulled the bequest to the seminary, putting 
instead the two pianos then used in it, and leaving 
the will to be executed in all other respects as before 
specified ; except that he appointed his wife, together 
with William R. Cone, Esq., to use such of his prop- 
erty as they might think best for the support and 
education of the children of Rev, Mr. Van Lennep. 

Thus a glimpse into his last will and testament 
discloses three objects in respect to the use of his 
property as having lain near his heart, — the Hart- 
ford Female Seminary; those two great missionary 
institutions of which he was so long an honored di- 
rector, and whose work he so much loved ; and the 
children of his son-in-law, that came, in his affections 
and his care for their education, into the place of 
his own departed children. 

Dr. Hawes was a genial man. In the early part 
of his ministry, he was subject to mental depression 
from ill health, and sometimes from the weather. 
His spirits went up and down like the mercury in a 
barometer ; and, with some others, the brightness 
of his Christian hope depended a little on the 
way of the wind. Dr. Alexander was once asked 
if he enjoyed a full assurance. " I think I do," he 
answered, u except when the wind blows from the 
east" " Do not send me any bad news," wrote Dr. 



372 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

Hawes to his wife : "I am in no state to bear it, — a 
little low-spirited : God help me ! " But these som- 
bre moods in his early labors became less frequent 
with improved health, and did not, long at a time, 
interrupt the cheerful flow of his spirits. 

He was an ardent lover of Nature, — the ocean, 
rivers (particularly his beloved Connecticut), moun- 
tains, beasts, and birds. " Give my love to my 
canary," he wrote of a fine songster sent him by a 
friend. " Tell him I see him, and hear his sweet 
notes all the time, though away down here at the 
mouth of the Connecticut." 

He was very fond of a good horse ; and he liked 
the care as well as the use of his favorite " Bonny." 
From New Haven, whither he had driven him and 
sent him back, he wrote, " I want Bonny to have 
very good care ; for he performed the journey ad- 
mirably." Then giving special direction as to his 
drink and feed, how much and how often, he adds, 
"I am thus particular, because the creature has 
done so well, that I think he ought to be rewarded." 

At one time, he had a young man in his family 
who took the charge of the horse. After he had 
left, Judge Williams said to him, " Who takes care 
of your horse now ? " — " Kev. Joel Hawes, D.D.," 
was the quick reply. 

Horseback-riding was a favorite recreation and 
exercise. He was one of the best riders in the city, 
and sat with the dignity and ease of a brigadier- 
general. "It was a goodly sight," said one who 
often witnessed the spectacle, "to see this venerable 
man returning from his accustomed ride, especially 



LIFE OF DR. EAWES. 373 

on Saturday afternoon, well mounted on his faithful 
steed, with rosy cheeks and sparkling eye and 
buoyant spirit, animated and re -invigorated for the 
duties of the coming Sabbath." 

Sometimes he would invite a brother to join him 
in a clerical riding-match, when there might occur a 
little trial of speed. At other times, starting out 
with his buggy, he would take a female friend for 
company; for he used to say, "I hate always to go 
alone." During one of these rides, the lady-com- 
panion remarked to him, "Mrs. Hawes seldom rides 
with you : I believe she has little faith in your 
horsemanship." — "Oh! " replied he in his pleasant 
manner, u she could not go without making her 
will." — "Why, is not your horse kind and gentle ? " 
— " Perfectly so. I call him one of Brother Finney's 
perfectionists : he hasn't a fault." 
/Dr. Hawes will be long remembered for his social 
pleasantries and his pithy and pointed sayings. An 
old friend and a brother-clergyman writes, " We 
had been widely separated, and had not met for 
many years. We hardly knew whether each was in 
the land of the living, or not. Unexpectedly we 
were brought face to face in a street of a distant 
city, where both of us were strangers. As we came 
from opposite directions, and were hurriedly passing, 
each recognized the other; and the doctor, raising 

both hands, exclaimed, c Brother H , are we both 

pilgrims yet ? ' " 

After having recovered from a severe sickness, 
being asked by a friend what message he should 
send to another mutual friend, — "Bear to her," 



374 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

said he, "my most affectionate remembrance, and 
say that I have been brought to the river's brink, 
but did not find its waters cold." 

To a young man who had just finished his profes- 
sional studies, and was going West with the sanguine 
expectation of success and affluence, the good doctor 
said, as he held him affectionately by the hand, 
" Well, I have but one thing to say about it : Lot 
chose one of the cities of the plain to dwell in be- 
cause it was well zoatered; but he was burned out'" 

In one of his pastoral visits during a season 
of religious interest, he found a very aged man, who 
had trusted in his morality, under the deepest con- 
viction, and who said, " I feel as if I must pull all 
down, and build up anew." — "Be thankful," was 
the response, " that you have not a foundation to 
lay : that is already laid." 

On the appearance of the first volume of Macau- 
lay's " History of England," distrusting so much bril- 
liancy of rhetoric in a purely historical work, he 
said to a ministerial brother, " It may all be as rep- 
resented ; but it is a lying style." 

One of the last calls he ever made was at a house 
where the family were absent. " Tell them," said 
he to the servant, " that I called." — " What name ? " 
she asked. " What name'? Can it be that you don't 
know old Dr. Joel Hawes ? " 

He was on terms of familiar acquaintance with a 
scholarly rector of the Episcopal church in Hart- 
ford. Calling one clay, and not finding him at home, 
as he turned to go the servant inquired who she 
should say had called. " Tell him, Bishoji Hawes." 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 375 

When once attending a Methodist meeting, being 
very much interested in the zeal of the worship- 
pers, he rose, and told them he believed that 
God was with them. As he was proceeding in 
his earnestness with some remarks, one of them 
responded, " Amen ! " The doctor, not hearing dis- 
tinctly, paused, and, turning round, asked, " What 
did you say, sir?" — "I said amen," was the reply. 
He tried to go on, was confused, could not catch the 
thread of his remarks, and with one of his half- 
serious, amused smiles, sat down, saying, "Well, I 
say amen too." 

He had a way of expressing intense feeling, as 
his horror at some great crime or blunder, by oppo- 
sites or absurdities, which was exceedingly effective. 
His thoughts seemed to spurn restraint, overleap all 
the barriers of reason, and revel in the extravagances 
of his indignation. Once, when the news of a great 
scandal to the church and the ministry came to his 
ears, putting out his large lips, and raising his old 
.staff, he brought it down with a force that almost 
shook the very house as he exclaimed, " I wish there 
wasn't a woman in the world ! " 

Dr. Hawes was exceedingly fond of music, as all 
really genial men are. He was not a connoisseur, 
and disliked what was merely theatrical or operatic. 
He loved most the simple rich melodies, Scotch airs, 
and martial music. He said he could never get by a 
hand-organ in the street without stopping to listen 
with the children and see the monkey. He felt with 
Martin Luther, that music was one of God's grandest 
and best gifts to men ; and that Satan hates it be- 



376 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

cause he knows how it drives the evil out of them, 
and lets in the good. When the thousands of Israel, 
at the meeting of the American Board and other 
great Christian gatherings, joined their voices in 
some grand harmony, — 

" Ye Christian heroes, go, proclaim ; " 

or,— 

" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run," — 

it bore him up heavenward as on angel's wings, 
and was a sweet prelude to the new song of the 
ransomed in glory. 

That Dr. Hawes was an earnest, honest, and Chris- 
tianly good man, no one who knows what Christian- 
ity is, and knew what he was, can have a doubt. 
His humanity could as easily have been overlooked 
or mistaken as his Christianity. The two are far 
from being identical ; yet they were in him insepa- 
rable. The Christian faith grew up from the divine 
planting, as the most real and the best part of his; 
being. He did not attain to its completeness till 
the close of his earthly life ; but every day made 
him more conscious of his imperfections, more con- 
scious of the conflict that was going on, and more 
sure of the final victory. Less and less did he need 
the external evidences, the farther he advanced in 
the Christian life ; for the truth became interiorly 
more and more clear and demonstrative. 

He knew the Bible to be from heaven, because it 
ruled so divinely his whole intellectual and moral 
being. He knew that love, Christian love, is the 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 377 

central force of the new humanity, of which Jesus 
is the ideal and model, because its tendency is so 
directly to the fulfilment of the whole law. If any 
thing is true, if consciousness is not an illusion, and 
our being is not a cheat, it was true that he loved 
God, and rejoiced in his government ; loved his fel- 
low-men, and, with a special affection, the First 
Church and Society in Hartford \ and, " loving his 
own, he loved them unto the end." 

" Of these high moral qualities," says Dr. William 
B. Sprague, an almost life-long friend, " one of the 
most conspicuous was an unyielding firmness in ad- 
hering to his own convictions. I do not think that 
he formed his judgments with undue haste ; but, 
when once his mind was made up, you might 
almost as well attempt to move a mountain as to 
change it. 

" Beneath what some might think even a forbid- 
ding exterior, he carried a heart warm with kindly 
and generous feeling • and many is the child of 
sorrow and want who can testify that that feeling 
has acted upon him like a charm. 

" I think he was incapable of dissimulation. I 
do not mean that he indiscreetly spoke out his mind, 
or that he was not generally under the control of 
a spirit of Christian prudence, but that he was ha- 
bitually true to his own sense of right, and never 
intentionally left a false impression on any mind. I 
can easily imagine, that, in the acting-out of this 
noble quality, he may sometimes have given pain 
from not having been sufficiently guarded ; but I 



378 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

am sure 'that the rule which governed him was to 
speak plainly and honestly, but kindly." 

Writes one who knew him intimately the latter 
part of his life, " I wish to bear my testimony to his 
simple goodness, his severe honesty, his large ten- 
derness of heart, his quick, full sympathies, his great 
good sense, his unquestioning, childlike faith, his 
robust, genuine piety, — impressions of him which 
came to me in my first interview, and which were 
never effaced, or in any way diminished, in the sub- 
sequent years in which I knew him." 

The following letter, written just after he entered 
college, to a young man by the name of Whitney, 
who had been a fellow-apprentice, shows the straight- 
forward earnestness and determination of Dr. Hawes 
at that early period in seeking to win souls to 
Christ : — 

" Norton, Feb. 18, 1810. 

" Dear Friend, — I know not whether it will 
coincide with your feelings and desires to receive a 
letter from me upon that subject which is infinitely 
interesting to those who must hereafter stand before 
the dread tribunal of heaven, then and there to 
receive according to their deeds done here in the 
body. 

" But, however this may Tbe, I cannot refrain 
from warning you of your clanger so long as I 
possess any regard for your happiness, or so long as 
my mind is drawn out in sorrow by reflecting that 
he with whom I have spent so many happy hours, 



LIFE OF DR. HAWES. 379 

and for whom I have the tenderest concern, is with- 
out a friend who is able to defend him from the 
wrath of God. 

" For all the world may pretend friendship ; but 
what will it avail so long as you are destitute of the 
friendship of Jesus ? 

" Believe me, you who are now reading these lines, 
that, without an interest in the pardoning mercy of 
God, you are of all creatures most miserable. You 
may be surrounded by those who pretend to be 
friends to you ; but they are, indeed, your most in- 
veterate enemies, so long as they have you by the 
hand, flattering you down to the gloomy region of 
despair. You may possess riches, and even the 
whole world ; but 'they will only be like the golden 
talent to sink you deeper and deeper in hell : for 
unto whomsoever much is given, of him much will 
be required. 

" my friend ! my soul bleeds for you : yes • for, 
somehow or other, you are in my desires at the 
throne of grace more than the nearest earthly friend 
I have ) which leads me to think that Mercy stands 
ready to embrace you, and crown you with eternal 
bliss. How can you be easy and calm, when, if you 
are out of Christ, you are under sentence of eternal 
death, and stand every moment exposed to fall into 
woe interminable ? 

" Eternal death ! never-ending woe ! — my soul 
shrinks back at. the idea, and clings to Jesus, its 
only refuge, and would earnestly invite you to flee 
for your life, and to come and make a friend of the 
God of heaven, who made you, and keeps you in life. 



380 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

Make no delay : for pale Death walks on every side ; 
and perhaps you are his next victim, and the next 
to appear before God. 

" Bring forward no excuse now which you would 
be unwilling to produce were you in the presence 
of God ; but go this minute, I entreat you, — go 
and make your peace with God, whom you have 
offended by this delaying and putting -off. 
Samuel ! I could fill many sheets with calling you 
to Christ. Must I part, yea, everlastingly part, with 
my dear friend ? It must be so : for I, by the assist- 
ance of God, am determined to follow Christ, and 
find heaven ; but if you will choose to follow Satan, 
and find hell, we must forever part. Shall I here 
give you the parting hand, and take an eternal 
farewell ? for perhaps, before my pen moves again 
to warn you, I or you shall be under the cold 
sod. 

" Give my sincere love to Mr. Barber and wife, 
and tell them that he who has enjoyed so many 
happy days under their roof, and who has received 
so many favors from them, earnestly desires that the 
choicest of Heaven's blessings may descend upon 
them and theirs ; and, oh, may the walls of that 
house yet echo with the praises of God ! 

" Now, my friend, I will spread this letter before 
my God, and pray that these lines may be blessed 
to your good. But depend upon this, that, if you 
refuse to comply, they will rise in judgment against 
you ; for I have endeavored to warn you of your 
danger. Come, my friend : do not let us part, but 
go to heaven together. " Joel Hawes." 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 381 

It is interesting to know, as the sequence of this 
plain, pungent letter, that the dear friend did 
comply with these earnest invitations, and that he 
illustrated the sincerity of a Christian profession in 
a life of remarkable activity and usefulness. Sixty 
years after he received this faithful epistle, his son 
writes, — 

" My father was well known in Monson, Mass., as 
Capt. Whitney, and in Monson, Me., as Squire 
Whitney, where he acted as justice, selectman, as- 
sessor, overseer of the poor, highway surveyor; 
begged all the money towards a church ; took it to 
build, and lost a thousand dollars by those who sub- 
scribed and did not pay. Our house was headquar- 
ters, for every thing, all town-business being done 
there. There, too, my father had a singing-school : 
indeed, he and mother led the singing at church, 
or rather did it. We always boarded the minister ; 
and the first ordination was held in our barn. It 
was better to hear my mother tell over the c Maine 
story/ as we called it, than to read any novel. 

" Several times my father called on Dr. Hawes ; 
and on one of these occasions he sent me a copy 
of his ' Lectures to Young Men,' with the contents 
of which I am somewhat familiar. Though I have 
not taken it up for ten years, I think it commences 
thus : i When Catiline attempted to overthrow the 
liberties of Rome, he commenced by corrupting 
the young men.' " 

Whether Dr. Hawes was a great man, or not, is a 
question which some answer in one way, and some 



382 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

in another. It was, indeed, of very little conse- 
quence to him, while living, in which way it was 
answered, and none at all now : for with Paul he 
said, "It is a very small thing that I should be 
judged of you, or of man's judgment; yea, I judge 
not mine own self." But the question presents a 
convenient form for a summary view of the life-work 
of this good man. 

The leading men in the New-England ministry 
have most of them had the advantage of Dr. Hawes 
in an earlier start. Dr. Hopkins entered college at 
sixteen, Dr. Dwight at fourteen, and President Ed- 
wards before he was thirteen ; but Dr. Hawes did not 
begin to fit till his twentieth year. They not only 
had early parental instruction, but that instruction 
was wise and religious. He had none, or what was 
worse than none. A good start usually makes a 
great difference in the race. 

During the twenty-six years of Dr. Hopkins's 
ministry at Great Barrington, there were received 
into the church a hundred and sixteen members ; 
in his thirty-three years' ministry at Newport, fifty- 
nine ; in the two pastorates of fifty-nine years, a 
hundred and seventy-five. The fifty- four years of 
Dr. Emmons's ministry at Franklin brought an ac- 
cession to that church of three hundred and eighty 
members. 

During the sole pastorate of Dr. Hawes, of forty- 
four years (from 1818 to 1862), there were added to 
the church sixteen hundred and eighty-one. The 
wide difference in these results is to be accounted 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 383 

for partly by the different periods in which the labors 
were performed, and partly by the numerical differ- 
ence in the congregations ; but it is also explained 
in great part by the difference in the men, in the 
style of their preaching, and their pastoral labor. 

The Congregational churches that arose in Hart- 
ford during his pastorate were composed, to a con- 
siderable extent, of colonists from the Centre Church, 
and carried with them the earnest, working spirit 
of its pastor; and that the city of Hartford, in 
respect to its native population, is in advance of 
almost every other city in the country in sober 
habits, healthful public and private morals, and 
sound evangelical Christianity, is largely due to 
the influence of' Dr. Hawes as a pastor and 
preacher. 

His love for the Centre Church was peculiar; 
so strong, that no allurements could draw him away ; 
so strong, that there seemed to be for him almost 
no other kingdom of Grod. But in this lay his 
power ; for it was his intense localized affection 
which concentrated so entirely his whole intellectual 
and moral force upon the lever. He even appeared 
to see nothing but the end of the long arm, and just 
there wisely applied all his strength, while he was 
mainly intent on the weight at the end of the short 
one. He sought to move his church, that by it he 
might help to move the world ; and he did help 
not a little. 

Out of the First Church in Hartford, during his 
ministry, came thirty-seven candidates for the Chris- 
tian ministry. Seven of these entered the foreign 



384 LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 

missionary field, with lay-workers enough, male and 
female, to increase the number of missionaries, home 
and foreign, to thirty-five. 

The publications of Dr. Hawes number fifty-one. 
Of these, all but one or two are sermons or discourses 
directly within his province as a preacher and pastor. 
Not one of them is on a theme distinctively philo- 
sophical, metaphysical, or scientific ; and only one is 
of a polemical character: so entirely did the min- 
istry occupy the time and employ the strength 
of this good man, and constitute his one sole ambi- 
tion and work. 

If he who " is least in the kingdom of heaven " is 
greater than John the Baptist, Dr. Hawes had one 
point of pre-eminence over the great pioneer New- 
Testament prophet. If he is great who came up 
from nothing to what is so positive and beneficent a 
ministry in that kingdom, and, by dint of hard labor 
and God's blessing, achieved a work so vast, that 
no one attempts to compute its magnitude or 
value ; if he is great who accomplished this with 
very little friction, with few mistakes, and fewer 
back steps ; who led a large flock for a longer time 
than Moses was employed in leading the Church 
through the wilderness, and in an almost equally dif- 
ficult and dangerous way, very many of whom he 
followed down to the river's brink at their crossing- 
over, — if these are great things, he who did them, 
despite the infirmities and perversities that are the 
lot of humanity, and require a lifetime of God's 
grace wholly to remove, surely may be numbered 



LIFE OF DR. HA WES. 385 

among the great " cloud of witnesses " who " through 
faith wrought righteousness, obtained promises, out 
of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant 
in fight, and turned to flight the armies of the 
aliens ; " respecting whom, He that was " in the 
midst of the seven candlesticks/ ' and "had in his 
right hand seven stars," hath said, " To him that 
overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my 
throne, even as I also overcame and am set down 
with my Father in his throne." 



Rand, Avrkt, & Fbyk, Printers No. 3. Cornhill, Boston. 



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